Woohoo! Another Summer CSA season is complete and it always seems like such an accomplishment ;) Thanks to everyone who participated in the Summer Share this year...we had such a great growing season despite some wonky weather.
So now that the Summer Share is over it is time for us to start harvesting storage crops AS FAST AS POSSIBLE. Though it feels like we've had an extended Summer (largely we have), it is in fact Fall. That means colder temperatures with daytime highs in the 40's, rainy-sometimes-slushy precipitation, and heavy crops largely pulled out of the soil to be washed. It can be a brutal haul, but it's what we do to ensure we have veggies through the Winter. We have only 1600 row feet of potatoes left to get out of the ground, then we can focus on crops like radishes and turnips before turning our sights on carrots, cabbage, beets, and parsnips, etc., etc. Some crop's flavor improve after a few frosts, so we like to leave them out in the field until that happens. Tonight will likely frost finally. 'Natural sugars are nature's anti-freeze' is how I like to explain why some crops taste better after living through some pretty cold temperatures. Plants will naturally produce sugars in order to protect themselves from multiple freezes, lucky for us. That's why parsnips dug out of snow will always taste better than those that weren't.
After this 'week off' the Winter Share will have it's first pick up. That's right, the first Winter Tuesday pick up is October 31st (Halloween) from 3-6:00 or Thursday November 2nd from 3-6:00 depending on your pick up day. Look for info in your inbox soon!
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