Farm Happenings at House in the Woods Farm
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Farm Happening for September 10

Posted on September 7th, 2020 by Ilene Freedman

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October 1-2 is our 20th harvest for CSA. That will be a wrap for the official CSA season. Make sure you use any credits or shares you put on Hold before October 1. And don't fret! We will continue to offer fall share pickups by pre-order on our Harvie Farm Stand, since we will continue to have some beautiful produce to share. The greens get beautiful again in the cool fall weather and you won't want to miss it.

WHAT'S GROWING ON

Welcome to autumn on the farm. The summer crops taper off and we welcome a harvest of potatoes, sweet potatoes, sweet potato greens, garlic, onions, butternut squash, and peppers. We are grateful to still have some tomatoes coming in, although they are ripening much slower. A new patch of patty pan is bringing in these fun saucers again, for a late summer squash. Phil is a lettuce magician, so we continue to harvest fresh crops of lettuce. And a rare season for kale: we have harvested kale every week of the CSA! Usually kale tapers off in July or August. We planted a new set of kale plants and it seems to be working well. Enjoy! 

U-PICK

The rain has been splitting the cherry tomatoes fast and then they fall to the ground. If the weather dries up a little, we may see a couple more weeks of cherry tomatoes. Keep checking them. Our late patch of green beans is doing well. It's good to see so many people enjoying U-Pick beans! When the patch is well picked, it grows new ones for the next week.

BUTTERNUT SQUASH

First harvest of the butternut squash! The squash patch is a sea of big leaves. As the leaves die back, the squash is ready for harvest. Butternut squash will be a featured item throughout September, so collect your recipes and enjoy this creamy squash! You can bake and puree it and add it to soups or freeze it to soup later. You can cube it and toss it with olive oil and roast in a casserole dish. Squash cubes work well in soups too. You can freeze cubes to toss into soups later. Butternut squash is very versatile. It even works in any pumpkin recipe, including pies!

Tunisian Pumpkin Soup is my favorite squash soup recipe. It is from Moosewood's Daily Specials Cookbook. This soup calls for pumpkin, but I always use butternut squash. We grow pie pumpkins too, they will be ready soon, but I usually save my pumpkin for pie or a decoration on the table. The fun part of this recipe is the spice swirl.