The predator came back this morning and found where mama and the dozen had bedded down near the bird feeders. The chicks escaped while mom sacrificed herself to save them. It was not a great way to start the day and it wasn’t until the end of harvest that I stopped feeling gloomy. Hmm, I tried glossing over the Part 2 of the Bad Morning Blues I see. Well I was raised catholic so let’s do confession; when I tried to herd the 10 baby chicks to safety at dawn this morning, I fatally injured one of the chicks. A metal wall I was using to corral them tipped over on him (I’m gonna pretend to know it was a rooster to take the edge off, ok? and I had to end his life by hand. You might not be a baby chicken massacrer but perhaps you have made poor decisions that you regretted vehemently and you understand how it goes. Ugh.

But then there were ten, and after harvest was done we had a comical time trying to corral them, finally succeeding in capturing half the Orphans (as that generation are now collectively known), enabling us to box them up and send them to their new home at CSA shareholder Cody’s house – where they will grow up adored by her two children and spoiled as the only poultry people present. So that was nice. The remaining five will be bravely facing life and the lurking predators and the dangerous Gabe Guy with the rest of the flock.

There is also a vegetable predator marauding in the greenhouse – a woodchuck, so with the aid of a motion sensor alarm I send him running with a warning shot from the .22, but if he returns and continues to evade the live trap while making an absolute hog of himself on our produce, we might get to find out how his species tastes.

The deer, however, are no problem at all this year and it’s relaxing not having to worry about them – especially since we finally finished the amazing new deer fence yesterday (that last part was unlikely to be breached, but the possibility of being proven wrong had kept your farmer up at night worrying about the tender little fall crop seedlings growing up just inside there).

Foraging continues: this time of year is all blackberries and wild mushrooms – this week we brought a load of chicken of the woods over to Neighbor Marcia’s to refrigerate for the market, and found a hoard of far superior quality and quantity when we were driving away up her driveway looking into her woods! All rejoiced, and the abundance helped make the farmer’s market our most successful ever!

And in happiest news, mighty enough to counterbalance the chicken problems; the cat has officially adopted us and its name is Ranger and the boys love it and it purrs when we pet and pick it up.

Farm Life taketh away but it also giveths … so, so much.

Inside Box 11

• Little Old School Pears – eat these fast or they will become mush. Ideally eat them at the exact moment the greenish tint turns yellowish. If you wait too many minutes longer the flesh softens and browns. But they’re pretty yummy so try your skills at timing their consumption. Put them all in a shallow bowl where you can see them all; the comparison allows you to see which are yellow. Yellow ones might last a few more minutes if refrigerated but why not just eat it now?
• Bok Choi bagged with Baby Broccoli
• Melon – note: melons don’t keep getting riper/sweeter while they sit, unlike tomatoes
• either Radishes or Tomatillos
• Eggplants
• Zucchinis
• a Cucumber
• Tomatoes
• Cherry Tomatoes
• Shallots
• Italian Frying Peppers and one ripe Bell Pepper – use them the same.
• Jalepeno
• Sweet Corn
• Lettuce Leaf Italian Basil
• Kale Microgreens

I’m not going to dwell or bemoan or wax forboding but it is just a science fact felt in the bones of all life local that summer has peaked and is now on the slow opening slide into the wintertimes. Trees know it, we know it. This part of the ride is really pretty. We’ll strive to remember to look up, and look out(ward).

We foraged lobster and chicken if the woods mushrooms, said forever farewell to the last O.G. Ginger chicken, and picked 10 pounds of chokecherries and a nice little pile of blackberries … we missed the opening salvo of these but are ready to ride the rest of the wave.

This week,

, which of course means that we mulched, and weeded, and welcomed the white and grey kitten to hang around if it wanted, and a chick got munched by a larger wild bird, and the pole beans got weeded. Wwoofer Margaret joined us, speaking of pole bean weeding.

Inside Box 10

TOMATOES – Prime tomato sandwich season is upon the land (and there was great rejoicing.) The green ones are likely almost peak ripe, as are almost all of them. If you don’t eat them within a few days, maybe move them from the counter to the fridge … or eat them. Eating them is a popular and correct path, with much potential for creative expression and joie de vivre. Tomatoes!

(PS do you need to buy a new jar of mayonnaise?

Cherry Tomatoes– like the other tomatoes, but little and adorable, in the manner of babies.

Purple Potatoes – If you’ve been mindful of how beets might color a dish, you’re equipped to handle the potential of the purple potatoes to dye a soup in an unpleasant direction (light colored soups become murky gray. Boiling them removes their color, but roasting is pretty purple preservative.

Red Onions – they are like the white onions, but they’re red. Pretty on a sandwich raw, if you swing that way.

They also stay pretty pickled.

Shishito Peppers – usually left whole. best blistered by high heat; grilled or on hot oil. Sprinkled with a little sale, and some garlic when you’re almost finished cooking them,

Sweet Corn – just a couple ears, and rather smallish. The corn is not having it’s best year. We have theories

Zucchini

Slicing Cucumbers

Summer (?) Savory – it might go well with your roasted potatoes, or in a compound butter. Use fresh or dry some for a later soup or something.

a Melon – either a cantaloupe or a sunjewel, or the one Yellow Canary Melon if you are that one box.

Arugula Microgreens – They have some spicy zip.

Maybe Ground Cherries – the hand of farmer fate is handing out a pint of ground cherries to the half of our members who missed a melon last week. So it be. Don’t worry if you miss them today – there will be more.

TAKE ONE: This was the week we got another free semi trailer. Bigger, nicer, more versatile and mobile!

TAKE TWO: Every year, there are a few crops that grow like gangbusters and produce unwieldy piles of produce. And in in the same seemingly random and impossible to predict manner, there will be a few crops that don’t produce as we’d hoped.

TAKE THREE: The gophers will pay for what they have done

TAKE FOUR: It’s is officially Late Season now. Early Late Season, sure. But nonetheless, the signs are there for those with eyes to see. Second rounds of Kohlrabi are in the boxes. We’ve harvested peppers. The corn stalks are browning. There are pockets of Fall Color here and there, as we drive south toward the Cities.

TAKE FIVE: …. long pause; faint rumble of tires on highway, fingers motionlessly poised

Inside & Outside & Falling out of Box 12

• a Melon (a yellow or a crimson watermelon, probably)
• Brussels Sprouts Tops – we cut the tops off – being Early Late Season and all – so that the plant puts energy into bud formation. As a bonus, the new leaves at the top of the plants are good eating. Cook it like collards or chard … perhaps with the greens from your:
• Kohlrabi – a second planting for the late season, ayuh

• Cucumbers – slicers
• Tomatoes – they’ve started a band to cover this song for you.

• Cherry Tomatoes – lots. Here are some things that Kristin wanted to try with our own abundance – but never did (mainly because we avoid running the oven when it’s this sticky out). So if you do give one a try, let us know how it goes:
• Quick Roasted Cherry Tomato Sauce
• Roasted Cherry Tomato Pasta
• Marinated Cherry Tomatoes

• Sweet Onions
• Shallots
• Microgreens (cilantro, basil, or pea shoots)
• Zucchini – gold and green (not unlike a Karma chameleon)
• Summer Squash – two-toned zyphyrs
• Potatoes (a mix of red, gold, purples)
• Mint – this and the holy basil might synergize fancily with your watermelon. And/or with booze. Like rum, or vodka. Pro CSA stuff there. Also, making tea is a great idea with this if you really don’t want a refreshing cocktail.
• Holy Basil – the stuff with flowers at the tips. So you can tell it apart from the Mint it’s bagged with.

• an Eggplant – courtesy of Neighbor Marcia’s garden, because our eggplants aren’t cooperating this season.
• Broccoli – side shoots from the first crop of it.

After we left the Farm, we spent a couple of weeks at Gabe’s sister’s home in Illinois, celebrating the Holidays early, relaxing, and doing some final preservation projects …

peppermint/cayenne salve

Then, fortified by two weeks of family fun & feasting, we ventured south …