It worked! We declared Summer to be over last week, and this successfully tricked warm weather into returning, hooray! I learned this trick from Kristin, who has found that she can make it rain by deciding to leave the clothes hanging on the line, or make storms miss us by taking the laundry in. Good deal, hope y’all are enjoying this sunny warmth – Future Winter You will thank you for it.
It was a lovely late summer / early fall week, with all the activities this time of year entails on the farm.
We had a bonfire or two, worked on projects, harvested watermelons and squash, juiced watermelons, wood-smoked veggies for salsa, and canned and preserved said salsa, as well as a sweet and spicy chili sauce, eggplant-tomato relish & baba ganoush (which is why you didn’t get an eggplant this week, apologies or you’re-welcome, depending on your Eggplant Stance).
(While we make use of all we need to, we do have a lot of hot peppers – so if you want some, definitely let us know!)
This week our imported friend and helper Azela led her first yoga class on the farm, as the gray skies cleared up and ended the session with glorious sunshine (her next class is this Sunday if you’re interested!),
The tomato plants have slowed way down, and more and more of them have decided to call it good for the season, leaving us with an abundance of green tomatoes. As the weather prepares to pivot toward wintertime, we have been amazed and gratified to see the root cellar rising up – the walls are full height now, and it’s clear we can get it done (or close enough anyway) before the snow flies … lumber is ordered to build the sturdy supporting forms for the next step – the poured concrete roof!
Soon we’ll be able to dig up the hundreds of feet of potatoes we have in “field storage” (left in place underground in the rows, with the above-ground plant removed), and store them away in this buried concrete fortress, where the dastardly voles cannot chew through them!
Week 14 – The Box
Neither Zucchini nor Eggplant – what!?
Brussels Sprouts – Kristin likes to blanch & halve them, then roast with butter. You could also pan fry them in cast iron with bacon!
Fall Salad Mix – (lettuce, bekana, pea tips, arugula, tat soi, spinach, and nasturtium flowers) – salad season part two is upon us!!
Spaghetti Squash – easiest to cut it half, scoop out the seeds in the middle, put it cut-side down on a baking sheet and roast in the oven until you can scrap out the strands with a fork. Add a shallot and Parmesan wine sauce perhaps! Or you could make it sweet, like other winter squashes, with brown sugar, butter, and cinnamon!
Shallots
a Cucumber – We’ve been enjoying a simple cold salad on the farm this week with sliced cucumber, shallot, and tomato, with oil, salt and pepper.
Beets
Fennel – we’ve been eating ours thinky sliced on salads and enjoying it plenty!
Parsley
Sweet Peppers – no hot ones this week!
Tomatoes – hopefully the plants resurge a bit with this new heat – the cold damp weather really set them back …
bag o’ mixed Cherry Tomatoes
That’s all for this week! Hope you love eating it all as much as we’ve loved growing it for you!
