Greetings,
After a long and glorious fall, this week we entered what we call "stick season," with deciduous trees bare of leaves, crop fields harvested, and more clouds than sun. While we will miss summer abundance and glowing autumn oaks and maples, we also welcome this time when nature urges a slowdown with shorter days and colder weather.
We did sneak in one important project prior to the the recent windy and chilly weather - installing new plastic film on our greenhouse. Our existing plastic had become damaged from years of wear and tear from resident cats, weedwhacker mishaps, and hailstorms. Wind is the nemesis of plastic pulling, and we couldn't have ordered up a nicer day than we got on Tuesday.
Last week, we said farewell to Sarah Lang, who spent three seasons with us and to whom we owe a debt of gratitude for her leadership. She was originally hired as our farmers' market harvest and sales manager, pivoting to CSA when COVID-19 forced us to change course. She led all of our postharvest operations (read: washing, quality checking, bagging, and assembling CSA shares); was our primary delivery driver; and stepped up in countless other ways to help with management of the farm. She'll be missed and we wish her all the best in her next pursuit!
Notes on select items items in this week's share:
- Cabbage: Did somebody say borscht? This will be cabbage's main appearance during this winter season and it pairs wonderfully with beets.
- Spinach: Like last week, this tasty, field-grown, frost-sweetened spinach is a treat - great fresh or cooked. Also available in 1-lb bags as extras.
- Sweet potatoes: We have been enjoying these sugary sweet taters immensely the last few weeks and will undoubtedly be featuring them at our Thanksgiving dinner. We are also offering discounted 2nds, which were either damaged during harvest (in which case we may have sliced off the damaged portion) or excessively scuffed up during harvest or washing. These are still be great eating - in fact, this grade is all we farmers eat - just with a more scratch-and-dent appearance.
- Garlic this weeks are small-medium bulbs of either Majestic or German Extra Hardy.
- Extras for Thanksgiving stock-up: We are offering potatoes, butternut squash, and bulk bags of carrots and spinach for folks looking to stock up on some veggies for Thanksgiving. These will not automatically end up in anyone's shares - you'll need to log in to Harvie and add them manually.
Have a wonderful week and happy early Thanksgiving!
Dana
