Harvest Newsletter

Greetings from the Garden!  The CSA box this week has salad and braising greens, lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, golden beets, peppers, leeks or onions,  radishes, beans and apples

Field Notes.  Last week we did see some tender plants nipped by frost  - a preview of what is to come.  Ken continues to harvest tomatoes and peppers, but is in the process of clearing the mobile high tunnel so we move it to a new location over some of the fall greens.  This should extend our greens season without setting up hoopettes in the garden. 

Ken's plan is to renovate the garden this winter - he has already fenced in certain areas for the pigs to dig, and he wants to have the egg mobile in position so the chickens have access to the garden.  Years ago we wintered the chickens in the garden, and they cleaned up many bugs and weed seeds.  With the flexibility of the mobile high tunnel, Ken wants to give the garden a rest.  

We are also clearing space and getting ready for those post frost tasks. I have been picking a great crop of dry beans, for example. There is a nip in the air, and we are looking at what will need to be harvested right after frost like squash and sweet potatoes, and what we will harvest after that, but before freeze up.

From the Kitchen.   This week we have fresh, beautiful greens from a late season planting.  Most are small, tender and sweet enough for salad, but the young brassicas like the kohlrabi greens are also great wilted or braised.

Golden beets are a real treat.  They are sweeter than red beets, and the flavor is lighter and less earthy.  And they don't bleed.  The tops are similar to chard - great braised or in a baked egg dish like quiche.

Enjoy the tomatoes as the end is coming!  The advantage of having some crops in greenhouses is not only having an early, but also a later harvest.  As I eat these late tomatoes I think ahead to next June when I will be answering that eternal question - how soon will we have tomatoes!  Once it gets cool, Ken and I really like to slice smaller tomatoes lengthwise and set the cut side down on the warm grill to cook the cut side and warm the rest.  It is a great blend of caramelized sweetness and uncooked, but warm tomato flavor as you eat them.  'Til Next Week, Judith