2nd Week of the Fall CSA Season: Week of October 22nd

Oct 18

Written By Evening Song Farm

*spinach, bok choi, green curly kale in the tunnel, photo by Adam Ford*

This Week’s Availability

This week we will have:

Greens: green curly kale, lacinato kale, rainbow chard, caraflex cabbage, green cabbage, bok choi, arugula, baby lettuce, spinach
Roots: red beets, yellow beets, carrots, watermelon radish, red potatoes, yellow potatoes, French fingerling potato, sweet potatoes, daikon radish, Gilfeather turnip, rutabaga, red radishes
Alliums: garlic, yellow onions, sweet onions, red onions, scallions, shallots, leeks
Herbs: cilantro
Miscellaneous: fennel
Fruiting crops: red roma paste tomatoes, green tomatoes, jalapeno peppers, aji rico hot peppers, shishito peppers, red carmen sweet peppers, green carmen peppers, tomatillos, delicata squash, butternut squash
This week, you can order some items in bulk if you do any preserving. We listed bulk red carmen peppers, bulk green carmen peppers, jalapeno peppers, and onions. (This may be the last week for peppers.) 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

*a round of red beets and chioggia beets, washed, drying, waiting to be bagged, photo by Ryan*

*a round of watermelon radishes, washed, drying, waiting to be bagged, photo by Ryan*

Farm News

We have continued to mostly have gorgeous sunny days to work on all the bulk field harvest as we get literal tons of food stored into the root cellar for the winter. Fall farming can be one of the more uncomfortable times of year to farm… We are still working outside, versus moving our harvest work into the relative weather-protected spaces of the high tunnels, and the cold dew on field veggies in the morning can be hard on our hands. Gloves are an obvious solution, but even really nice work gloves really decrease the dexterity of what we want our fingers to do. And the wind on our hillside can really cut through during long stretches in the field. On those harder weather days, we eagerly think about how in the winter, we can be inside the tunnels, poly end walls blocking the wind, clear plastic covers amplifying any sun to warm the workspace. But anyway, that’s why it’s been so nice to have such mild weather this fall. Most days have been a joy to work on getting all these veggies inside, and we are grateful for each of them.

I wish I thought of taking a picture of it, but one evening this week, I was really pleased to see the rainbow of colors sitting on the stove and counters of my kitchen… The deep purple of a new batch of elderberry syrup, the bright red of fermenting serrano hot sauce, an even brighter red of a bowl of dried and crushed aji rico, the vivid yellow of a roasted aji amarillo hot sauce, the dark green of a batch of pesto…. There are so many colors that get preserved into our freezer and pantry, and it makes me observe vegetables as artists: Imagining these plants creating their own paintings and works of art before we use them as nourishment. Plus, we are a pretty spicy household, so it was just satisfying to see the various ways we get to add heat and flavor to food for the year!

We also got to send out another pallet’s worth of sweet peppers to the food bank this week, and next week they get a pallet of carrots and baby lettuce. It’s a real joy to imagine all the fresh, healthy, certified organic local food that gets out to the various charitable food locations in our region.

Have a great week,

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

Cowboy Candy

Some wonderful CSA member gifted us a jar of “cowboy candy” this summer, and during lunch, we have all been enjoying adding it to our lunches. There are many recipes online for how to make your own if sweet and spicy is your thing. (This may be one of the last weeks of jalapeno peppers this year.) Thank you to the spicy fairy hero who gifted us the cowboy candy!