In the Share - Week 20

broccoli - the favorite fall flower

TOMATOES (F/P) Enjoy this moment while we still have the summer fruits and the flavors of fall.

GREEN BEANS (F/P) We have a bumper crop at the moment as 4 beds of beans decided to ripen all at once! The green beans are called, Jade. Very sweet and long and tender. We have a few more yellow wax and Roma types. Extra Jade beans are on the bulk list this week only.

LETTUCE (F/P) More ruffled red leaf and some new green romaines.

RADISHES OR TURNIPS (F/P) Partial shares get radishes, full shares get a choice.

SWEET PEPPERS (F/P) September peppers are always the best, evenly-ripened and incredibly sweet.

BROCCOLI (F) Nice heads are beginning to form in the patch. Partial shares are next in line.

GARLIC (F/P) Artichoke soft-necked variety. Partial shares get a choice with the herbs.

WINTER SQUASH (F/P) This week you will be receiving acorn & carnival squash varieties with a few butternut thrown in. Check Tom's blog for our favorite way to eat them - so simple but good.

CHOICE OF GREENS (F/P) The greens are back and looking beautiful. This week we are catching up with the partials giving them a choice of kale, Swiss chard or collards. Full shares choose between Chinese cabbage, tat soi and bok choi.

HERBS OR HOT PEPPERS (F/P) Sage, garlic chives or hot peppers. Sage is nice with winter squash. The hot peppers are plentiful right now. See the bulk list if you'd like to buy some for freezing.

ALSO THIS WEEK: Parker Farms delivery

NEXT WEEK: More broccoli, tomatoes, peppers, greens, turnips and lettuce. The first sweet potatoes (we delayed this a week as they seem to need a bit more time to cure) and leeks.

Tom and I are routinely asked what our favorite job on the farm is. We both agree that harvesting a good crop ranks pretty high on our list of favorite things. It's even better when it's a highly-desireable crop like broccoli. The fall plantings are looking very good and we hope to have the cruciferous flower in the shares from now until the end of the season.

broccoli and it's paler cousin, cauliflower, in full leaf out.

The 2010 member survey shows that broccoli is your favorite too. You want us to produce more broccoli over any other vegetable. Only the juicy 'berries' catagory had more requests, but not many more. Other favorites were tomatoes and spinach.

Another tidbit from the survey include that 100% of you think your time at the farm was utilized 'effectively'. Glad to hear it. We surely appreciate your help. For example, this past Saturday a crew of about 16 picked 180 lbs. of green beans in addition to the greens and roots included in that day's shares. We're pretty sure that's a record for one morning's work. Check out the stop action video.

We thank you all for putting up with the 'very, very hot days', the bending over, waking up early on a Saturday and the dirt. Your comments are welcomed here and we hope to improve the experience, with the obvious caveats about weather included, for next season and beyond.

Getting 'hot and dirty' was also one of your favorite aspects about farm work. As was 'seeing where the food comes from', 'getting up and out that early and spending time with my son' and 'educating the kids'. One member stated they 'actually loved weeding the strawberry patch' and more of you liked harvest.

Meanwhile, our dedicated crew of FSF CSA Core Group members won high praises. We agree with you all that the distribution teams are doing a great job of making the process easy and flexible. While membership on the Core Group replaces the farm shift requirement, it surely requires more time and equal effort. Special thanks goes to the talented Gary Glauberman, who created and coordinated the survey. It was a beautiul thing.

And one last thanks to the talented Lauren, who has been working alongside us for over a week. She came to visit farm apprentice Emily and in the process harvested, planted and worked in the compost. We appreciate her fortitude and joyful spirit and wish her all the best on her travels.

Emily and Lauren at the Equinox sunrise.