In the Share - Week 21

CAULIFLOWER (F) One of my favorite crops and not the easiest to grow. We should have cauliflower for another few weeks.

LEEKS (F/P) I am so ready for some luscious leeks to enter our fall kitchen.  See Farmer Tom’s post for more about them.

LETTUCE (F/P) More of the heat-tolerant crisp heads for a satisfying crunch.

RADISHES (F/P) We have three different kinds of radishes ready in the fields and we plan to pick them all for your choosing. Partial shares get a choice of radishes or turnips.

HAKUREI TURNIPS (F) The farm crew’s favorite snack in the field right out of the ground.

TOMATOES (F) Your farmers are debating whether it is time to begin the dismantling of the patch. So far the plants are producing just enough good ripe fruit to keep us from our task but their time is running out.

EGGPLANT OR OKRA (P) A light frost on Sunday morning spared the tender summer fruits for the most part. Only the basil was significantly damaged.

SWEET PEPPERS (P) Mostly purple peppers along with some ripe types.

CABBAGE OR KOHLRABI (F) Choose your ball of brassica (reminds me of the "choose your ball of cucurbit" of a few weeks back). The kohlrabi is a fall variety that gets pretty big but stays tender.

ARUGULA (F) A bit of spice for your salad.

HERB CHOICE (F) Garlic chives, parsley, thyme or hot peppers

NEXT WEEK: More eggplant, peppers, okra, radishes, turnips and cauliflower. Sweet potatoes and a greens choice.

FARM REPORT:

At Fair Share Farm the planting season starts in early February when we seed the onions in the greenhouse. From then on we keep planting so that we have a succession of crops that keeps the CSA shares well stocked with a good assortment of crops. Only now in late September are we at the point where we can stop planting. The last seeds to go in the ground were planted in the high tunnel this week. It is now filled with young lettuces, arugula, beets, turnips, endive, spinach, bok choy, bulb fennel and chard.

 

We have also been spending a lot of hours tending to the many rows of fall roots that somehow managed to sprout and grow during the peak of the summer drought.   We have 2200 row feet of carrots and each plant must be weeded and thinned by hand within the rows.   Luckily our Allis Chalmers G tractor takes care of the weeds growing in between the rows.  On Monday we moved all of the irrigation tape out of the path and the "G" and I did some serious weed-killing.