Harvest Newsletter

Greetings from the Garden! this week's CSA box has tomatoes, potatoes, greens, salad turnips, cucumbers, peppers, onions, garlic, parsley, squash, and raspberries

Field Notes.  As I write this Monday evening, it looks like we will get our first frost.  This is later than usual.  Several of the heat loving crops are ending, and Ken has lined up a crew to help with moving the mobile high tunnel over the fall greens to extend the season.  He has been cleaning up what he can as he can in the current location so it can be as smooth a transition as possible.  He will put in a half day's work in preparation and another after it is moved - first clearing plants and track and second anchoring the greenhouse to track and ground.

Ken is also in the "big dig" phase of autumn.  Starting with onions and garlic in summer he moves on to potatoes and sweet potatoes, then all the roots I bury in sand in the root cellar: beets, carrots, black radishes and daikon, celery root, rutabagas and kohlrabi and then on top (not in sand) storage cabbage and possibly Brussels sprouts.

Ken has also been planting green manures as he pulls crops.  He can plant rye and winter wheat well into November.

From the Kitchen.  Potatoes!  When Ken digs potatoes they are so good.  Some get sliced in the process of digging, and they will not keep so we eat them first.  After scrubbing we boil briefly and then peel while warm.  Ken likes them "smashed" in the bottom of soups or stews.  I like them fried up American style with eggs for breakfast.  And yesterday I made a cream sauce and added them for a "stove top scalloped potatoes" that got Ken's approval.

This is the best part of the raspberry crop this year.  In the heat the Asian fruit flies were laying eggs in the berries, so I picked them for steam juicing.  Now that it has gotten cold the berries seem fine.  If you hit a problem, please let me know

Acorn squash is in its prime!  We like it baked.  cut a cap at an angle like you would for a jack o' lantern, scoop out the seeds and place in the oven on a plate or baking dish.

'Til Next Week, Judith