Hey veggie lovers,
Welcome to the customization period for your final summer CSA delivery!
This season has been incredibly strange. It's been stressful to navigate constant changes and challenges to how we deliver our food to our community, but it's also been deeply fulfilling. It feels right to us, to be able to feed our neighbors while the world is in a state of tumult. While we've gone through the past several months not knowing what tomorrow might bring, we have known that we can continue to plant seeds that will grow into healthy food that will nourish the bodies of those around us. Thank you for joining us, thank you for supporting us, thank you for sharing in our harvest. Happy thanksgiving to you all.
If you'd like to continue eating with us, please consider signing up for our winter CSA share. Since there will no longer be a market in Goderich this winter we have expanded the program. We are aiming for 200 share members and currently have 150. There are pick up locations in Belgrave (on farm), Blyth, Bayfield, Clinton (NEW), and several in Goderich. If you need help signing up or have questions please reach out to Tamara at firmlyrootedfarm@gmail.com.
ON THE FARM
Today was sweet potato harvest day!
Sweet potatoes are a tropical crop, and are the only agricultural crops I know that are part of the morning glory family. They prefer a long, hot growing season and do not handle frost.
Sweet potatoes are also unique in that they grow from cuttings. Rather then planting a seed, or a portion of root like with potatoes, sweet potato growers sprout last years tubers then harvest the sprouts, called slips, to root into new plants. I've tried this with limited success and this year, planning to ramp up our sweet potato production, I ordered 1,000 slips out of North Carolina which is prime sweet potato growing country. The slips look terrible when they arrive and need to be planted almost immediately.
We planted ours the first week of June into raised beds, and since sweet potatoes love heat we covered the beds with black plastic. We watered them frequently for the first few weeks and most survived.
Finally, after many months, we harvested them and it was thrilling. The largest one weighted in at over 5.6 pounds, and the entire harvest was a little over 2,000 pounds.
Next step is to cure them which thickens the skin and readies them for storage, it also gives them that great sweet potato sweetness. Curing takes 10 days at 28 degrees Celsuis and 85-90% humidity. Once that's done we'll share them with our amazing winter CSA members.
We hope you'll join us!
That's all for now folks, happy eating until next time.
Tamara
