16th Week of the Summer CSA Season: September 9th

Sep 5

This Week’s Availability

This week we will have:

Greens: baby lettuce, spinach, green curly kale, lacinato kale, rainbow chard, head lettuce, green cabbage, caraflex cabbage, brussels crowns*
Roots: red beet bunches, yellow beet bunches, carrot bunches, loose carrots, watermelon radish
Alliums: garlic, yellow onions, sweet onions, red onions, scallions, shallots
Herbs: parsley, basil, sage
Miscellaneous: Rhubarb, celery
Fruiting crops: slicing cucumbers, pickling cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, heirloom tomatoes, beefsteak tomatoes, roma paste tomatoes, juliet tomatoes, jalapeno peppers, green beans, shishito peppers, carmen sweet peppers, snack peppers, tomatillos, husk cherries, spaghetti squash

*Brussels crowns are the top tender part of a brussels sprout plant that we remove this time of year to force the growing energy of the plant into the sprouts versus continuing upward energy. They are delicious and tender, and if they are new to you, you can imagine using them like collard greens, but with a brussels sprouts flavor. Our favorite, easy way to enjoy them is to cut them into thin ribbons, and saute with olive oil, garlic, and salt. Super yum.

This week, you can order some items in bulk if you do any preserving. We listed bulk heirloom tomatoes, roma tomatoes, pickling cucumbers, and onions. If you pick up in the barn, feel free to send us an email to order bulk items with the volumes you want, and what day we should have it ready in the barn, and we will give you your total and where to find it in the barn.

Click here to order your veggies for a delivered bag to Ludlow or Rutland

*Cucumbers were so good ot us this year. This will be their last week as they make way in the high tunnels for winter greens, photo by Adam Ford*

Farm News

This week begins a season of transition on our farm, as we begin the process of removing summer crops from the high tunnels to plant those beds to cold-hardy greens that we will harvest in October through the new year. Then the greens and farmers hunker down for January and February, until the lenghening March days bring new growth back to the incredible plants who have waited through the winter for the opportunity to grow again. So far we have planted scallions, kale and chard in our high tunnels, and before long we will plant cilantro, parsley, lettuce, spinach, mesclun mix, and claytonia. Many of those are already seeded in our greenhouse…it always amazes me to be seeding vegetables in August that we will be harvesting in March and April.

While August has been about as dry as we’ve ever seen, crops in the field are looking exceptional. We have been able to judiciously utilize our farm’s abundant well water to supplement the moisture in the soil, and the cooler temperatures of the past couple weeks have reduced plants’ needs to pull water from the soil to stay cool through evapotranspiration. Many of the growing practices that we have implemented over the past 5 years—reducing tillage, utilizing organic mulches, and cover cropping—have greatly improved the water retention of our soil, so that crops can thrive under a wider range of precipitation conditions. As I heard a soil scientist explain once, it’s possible to grow good quality and high yielding crops in degraded soils, but only under a narrow set of environmental conditions. In times like these, where we receive too little or too much rain, I’m especially grateful for all that we’ve learned and all the energy we’ve put into improving the soil health of this land.

-ESF Team: Kara, Ryan, K2, Cindy, Taylor, Leah, Natalie, Katie, Galen, Vanessa, Georgia, and Hannah (and Sky and Soraya)

Brussels Crowns, Bacon, Yellow Beets, and Penne