In the Share: Week 15

SALAD TURNIPS: We can’t grow these turnips any better. Eat these fresh with a little salt for a wonderful appetizer or snack.

SPINACH: The spinach has flourished in the protection of the high tunnel. Enjoy it with some fresh cheese or with some free-range organic eggs.

CABBAGE: Fresh fall cabbage is always a treat. The harvest always coincides with the coming of cold autumn nights. To keep cabbage crisp and tender, salt it after cutting.

KALE AND BROCCOLI BUNCHES: Tender tops of the kale rescued from the field before the freeze. Bundled with some hefty sprouting broccoli, they make a great greens combo.

GARLIC: This softneck garlic stores best in the vegetable crisper. And if you have a garden, you can plant the larger cloves in your garden now to get a head of garlic next July.

LETTUCE/ARUGULA: Wednesday pickup will be lettuce, Satuday and Monday will get the arugula.

FARM REPORT
With the onset of wintery weather, the best work environment on the farm is the high tunnel.

The first picking of the spinach crop is outstanding. If we are lucky, we will continue to pick it every few weeks throughout the winter into next Spring. For the next several months, our harvest field has been reduced to this 30 ft. by 96 ft. space. While buttoning up the end wall, we got a bird’s eye view.

Left to Right:  Swiss Chard, sprouting broccoli, spinach, salad turnips, lettuce.  Outside is another story, with the fields headed towards a winter slumber.

This was on a lovely fall day last week when we got out the big ladders and buttoned up the end of the high tunnel.  Since then, we have just a few tasks left to complete before we can settle in to the winter routine. We could use a few more sunny, dry days to plant and mulch the garlic, wind up the remaining irrigation tape and chop down the sunflower stalks. As the season draws to a close, nature dresses herself in her own Halloween decorations.