CSA Newsletter

Sarah helping Ken install hoopettes

Greetings from the Garden!  This box has salad mix, broccoli and cauliflower, Walla Walla sweet onions, beets, potatoes, tomatoes, cucumber, zuchetta, the last grapes, apples, melon, raspberries.

Root cellar

Field Notes.  No hard frost yet means we still have tender vine crops like zuchetta and cucumbers this late.  We have found a tomato variety that can be harvested later than most, so we are still picking those as well.  As we pick these crops, we realize the end is near and look toward the fall vegetables, too.  I have begun root cellaring the larger beets and carrots as we harvest

The crew  - thank you Miranda, Ben, Sam, and Evan

Last week was an exciting week here.  Thursday we had four younger farmers come out to help move the mobile high tunnel.  Ken learned a lot last season when he moved it with only one other person.  He spent time clearing tracks and greasing wheels so it would go smoothly and it went great!  By the time I realized the farmers were here, and went down with the camera, they had moved the greenhouse.  Three were first time visitors, so Ken gave them a tour, and our friend Evan found a chicken of the woods mushroom.

Sarah has a cart like this at home

Sarah, a young farmer friend from Arizona came for a couple days.  She is in the area to attend weddings on two successive weekends.  She was happy to see our farm and help out.  And it was great to compare notes in the evenings on growing and selling vegetables here and in Arizona.  Thank you, Sarah, for your visit and help!




From the Kitchen.  We are having an abundance of fruit this fall.  We are so grateful for apples after last year's poor harvest.  And the melons have done well, too.  Raspberries are small with all those cool nights and lack of rain, but the flavor seems concentrated.

With Evan's mushroom discovery and Ken's discovery of two huge puff ball mushrooms, we have been filling the dehydrator, and making mushroom soup.  Sarah and Ken really liked Monday's breakfast soup: cook some bacon, set aside, cook mushrooms in the bacon fat, set aside, cook onions in the remaining fat, add cut carrots and potatoes and a hearty soup stock.  Simmer carrots and potatoes 'til tender, add the mushrooms to the soup.  Place rinsed pieces of raw kale in soup bowls.  Cover with hot soup to wilt and top with the chopped bacon.

Sarah had a big midday meal when she arrived, and we worked late, so I made an apple crisp for a light supper.  It was a hit with her and Ken.  Rinse and core apples, chunk or slice into a bread pan to nearly full ( I don't peel the apples).  Top with a crumble of rolled oats, flour, butter or lard, a little sugar and salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. Bake until the crumble browns and the apples juice and bubble around the sides.  Serve warm with cream.  We have also been steam juicing apples and grapes with slight blemishes

'Til Next Week, Judith