I’m writing this on Monday evening, after a beautiful warm sunny day. Even though last week at this time the weather was drizzly and gray, today it was hard for us to believe fall has arrived. Instead, it felt like an endless summer.
That is, until we began making our ‘pick sheet’ for this our sixteenth CSA harvest. This week brings a distinct shift from all of summer’s vegetables to those familiar with autumn. No more green beans, corn, or summer squash. Instead we have things like onions, greens and potatoes! And, yes, many of summer’s flavors are lingering in this beautiful September as well: tomatoes and peppers are as sweet as ever. Sometimes we describe early fall as ‘colored pepper’ season, because warm weather at this time of year ripens the last of the bell and sweet peppers.
And as these late sunny days will help us sustain summer’s flavors a little while longer, we hope that you too take advantage of the this brief Indian summer before the rain truly sets in for the winter. Eat dinner outside. Go on walks. Sit in the sun.
One of our favorite parts about this season is that we can do all these things without overheating. Several times over the last few days, we have stopped working in the fields just to savor the moment: light breeze, golden sunlight, comfortable weather … we think this is a magical time of year. Let us cherish it together!
Meet this week’s vegetables:
And, for fun, a poem for fall: Ode to the Onion ~ Pablo Neruda (translated by Ken Krabbenhoft) (Read aloud!)
Onion, / shining flask, / your beauty assembled / petal by petal, / they affixed crystal scales to you / and your belly of dew grew round / in the secret depth of the dark earth. / The miracle took place / underground, / and when your lazy green stalk / appeared / and your leaves were born / like swords in the garden, / the earth gathered its strength / exhibiting your naked transparency, / and just as the distant sea / copied the magnolia in Aphrodite / raising up her breasts, / so the earth / made you, / onion, / as bright as a planet / and fated / to shine, / constant constellation, / rounded rose of water, / on / poor people’s / dining tables.
Generously / you give up / your balloon of freshness / to the boiling consummation / of the pot, / and in the blazing heat of the oil / the shred of crystal / is transformed into a curled feather of gold.
I shall proclaim how your influence / livens the salad’s love, / and the sky seems to contribute / giving you the fine shape of hail / praising your chopped brightness / upon the halves of the tomato. / But within the people’s / reach, / showered with oil, / dusted / with a pinch of salt, / you satisfy the worker’s hunger / along the hard road home. / Poor people’s star / fairy godmother / wrapped / in fancy paper, / you rise from the soil, / eternal, intact, as pure / as a celestial seed, / and when the kitchen knife / cuts you / the only painless tear / is shed: / you made us weep without suffering. / I have praised every living thing, onion, / but for me you are / more beautiful than a bird / of blinding plumage; / to my eyes you are / a heavenly balloon, platinum cup, / the snowy anemone’s / motionless dance.
The fragrance of earth is alive / in your crystalline nature.
On that note … enjoy the vegetables!
Your farmers,
Katie & Casey Kulla
Oakhill Organics
