We’re almost to the end of the season now, and it feels like it. It’s been so cloudy that we’ve been running on generator power a lot, and the wind has barely stopped to catch its breath for three or four days.
It’s been all week, really – after we delivered boxes, we spent Wednesday afternoon harvesting apples down in Lakeville (thanks Lizzy and yer folks!) – then we drove north through the crazy flooding lightning party that welcomed a week of indisputable autumnal air, bringing with it the reassessment of wardrobes. The mice invasion reached a fever pitch, with multiple invaders introduced to their mortality nightly. The well water graduated from chilly to painful for the heroes that wash your produce, and the window directly over our bed was closed in a hardfought concession to the reality of the coming coldness.
In other news, I fell out of an apple tree and then the ladder fell on my head.
Week 17 Box:
It was a race against the forecasted rain today, so we harvested as much as we could as soon as it was light enough to see, and packed the boxes up under a canopy as the drops came down – a week that began and ended with cold rains!
- Celery – couldn’t fit inside the box, so you get it on the side … which worked out since they barely closed as it was. This stuff was hard to grow in the sand barrens, being a marshland plant – so it may be a little tougher than what you’re used to. But it’s good! I like the more concentrated celery flavor. The tops and leaves are good for making broth, and the stalks are good for soup (try Cream of Celery perhaps) or stuffing or pot pies or termites-on-a-stick.
- Apples – enjoy a few pounds of delicious Haralson Apples, courtesy of CSA Alumni Lizzy and the Abbey Road Orchard! The apples in your box cost me my life in several alternate realities, so please enjoy them lots.
- Carrots – Believe it or not, the ones in your box are the little ones – the true monsters are being sold to a cafeteria this week. The sandy soil, regular rain, careful weeding, and good spacing really let these guys get incredibly large this season, which is awesome – none of them had started to flower, so they aren’t woody … just jumbo-sized.
- Napa Cabbage – I have found that I quite like cabbage.
- Tomatoes – From little cherries to hulking heirlooms, a nice selection of the high tunnel tomatoes.
- Potatoes – Depending on how you have moved through the pages of the Choose Your Own Adventure Book of your life, you are now blessed with either Yukon Gold, Russet, or Red potatoes this week, or perhaps even a mix of the three.
- Hot & Sweet Peppers – hot peppers are bagged in with your radishes, the sweet mild peppers are running loose in the box. Mix them up if you enjoy playing Pepper Roulette!
- Eggplant – Italian and Asian varietiesLast eggplant of the season … unless you come to the pizza party on the 9th. Which we assume you are.
- Broccoli – Not baby brocolli – full heads; the second planting has cometh!
- French Breakfast Radishes & Baby Crimson Giant – tender little radishes.
- Savory herb – Great with soup, and potatoes, and potato soup!