The children run through a freshly worked field.
In the past week, I’ve had several moments when I realize that — for a moment — I have no idea what season we are in. These moments were jarring but also oddly blissful. In the absence of a clear moment in time, they felt timeless. Eternal, in a way.
But I think the cause behind my moments of confusion is more practical and down-to-earth. The weather we’ve been experiencing in the last week has been mild and doesn’t immediately tell me anything specific about the season. It could be summer (as it is), fall, a warm winter day, or spring.
Of course, we’re very much in late summer mode out here. Casey has begun working up some of the earlier summer crops that are done and have gone to weeds (making for fun dirt runways for the kids — see photo above!). He spends an hour in most days picking fruit, which is now maturing in what Wendell Berry describes as a “tide” of abundance. He’s already brought in Gator-load after Gator-load of apples and pears to store in our cooler, with more to come.
And next on the harvest schedule will be the potatoes, followed by storage cabbages. We are in harvest mode, looking ahead to the colder months ahead (but not too eager for them yet! There is much to do before then!).
I imagine that for our members, this week probably felt like the first real week of fall, with so many households returning to school year schedules of classes. Historically, the first week of the school year is the best attended week of the CSA season, because almost everyone is in town and establishing new rhythms.
We hope that everyone who is connected to the world of school has had a fabulous first week back! And, enjoy this week’s vegetables!
Your farmers, Katie & Casey Kulla
P.S. We’re celebrating a rather exciting anniversary this month — it’s been 10 years since we bought our land! We have some special plans in that regard for this weekend, and we will share more stories about that occasion next week!
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Final CSA payment due September 22! I’ll be emailing personal CSA statements and reminders shortly, but I wanted to remind everyone that the final payment is due soon! Please pay any remaining balance by September 22. Let us know if you have any questions about your account balance!
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Meet this week’s vegetables:
- Grapes
- Plums
- Apples
- Salad mix
- Red sweet peppers — We wait all year for these, the last ripening summer fruits. Because they do ripen so late, to us they are really a fall fruit, and we will be harvesting them well into October and possibly November. They are delicious in so many applications: chopped and added raw to a salad. Chopped and sauteed with greens (and/or zucchini). This time of year, we tend to add them liberally to everything we cook, rejoicing in the subtle sweet flavor and beautiful color they add to dishes.
- Green peppers
- Tomatoes
- Cauliflower
- Kale
- Chard
- Zucchini
And this week’s extra goodies from the farm:
- Eggs — $6/dozen
- Lamb — Chops are $14/lb; roasts are $10/lb; ground lamb is $10/lb; and organs/bones are $6/lb.
- Beef stock bones — $6/lb.
- Pork organs, fat & bones — $4/lb
