CSA Newsletter – Week 13 – September 13, 2017

I hope you’re hungry. This box is a beast. The abundance of corn and return of greens made this box a challenge to close. We are happy to finally have more lettuce to share. A combination of poor germination and deer thinking the lettuce patch was a buffet meant for them, caused a little lettuce lull.

WHAT’S IN THE BOX:
carrots
beets or chard
corn
spinach or kale
lettuce
patty pan and crookneck squash
slicing or lemon cucumber
sungold cherry toms-small shares only
red tomatoes
red or orange sweet pepper
red onion
garlic
basil or parsley
red or yellow potatoes
Italian eggplant-half of you.

As lovely as that little bit of rain was, we are hoping it will hold off just a little longer. We have several critical fall chores to complete before conditions get too wet. We have been trying to peck away at them, but harvest and irrigation take up most of our time these days. As of yesterday, all the dry beans are harvested and sitting in the greenhouse to await threshing. We should get the rest of the onions in by the end of today. They will get laid out in 4 of our greenhouses to finish drying. We will then clip and clean them as needed. I love the dual purposes the greenhouses provide: plants in spring, bean and onion storage in fall.

Jim is on the tractor now discing in old crop residue and weeds. Soon we will plant a nice cover crop of rye and crimson clover to protect and rejuvenate the soil over the winter. Garlic must get planted and winter squash and potatoes have to get harvested before the fall rains set in. Those jobs are NOT fun when it’s wet.

We took the crew out to Our Table in Olympia for our annual crew dinner last night. The food was AMAZING! If you haven’t eaten there, you should go. The buy from a lot of local farms and my goodness,  they are talented chefs.  We asked them to create a menu around what produce we currently have available. They came to the market stand on Sunday, gathered up a few boxes of goodies, and put together a full-on 5 course meal with multiple dishes per course. We were all stuffed to the gills by the end and so very happy. Sigh… I wish there had been leftovers, but alas, it was just too good to leave any behind.

Now is the perfect time to say a HUGE thank you to our crew. Jim and I cannot do this alone. We are so  grateful for their amazing work ethic, care for the farm, and wonderful personalities. It is a joy to work with each and every one of these goofballs.