Fall arrives

'Tis the season for tomatoes and winter squash harvest! (These are straggler squash — we have heaping loads in storage already.)

Meet this week’s vegetables:

• Celery — For the first time ever, we have grown celery! Of course, we can’t just grow normal celery. This is a more rugged, cutting type of celery. It does have a stalk, but it won’t be quite as tender as sweet as store bought celery. In return, the flavor is amazing — strong and wonderful for use in soups or other dishes.
• “Jimmy Nordello” sweet peppers — As the name says, this is a SWEET pepper (even though it looks like a hot one). Rusty loves these things and will eat them by the handful in the field.
• Green peppers
• Salad mix
• Tomatoes
• Carrots
• Acorn squash
• Katahdin potatoes — These are a russeted potato, great for baking, mashing or roasting!
• Summer squash & cucumbers
• Cipollini onions — Use these funny shaped onions in any dish or roast them whole and enjoy their sweet flavor as a side dish all on its own!

After a looooooong dry spell, we woke up to the pitter-patter of gentle rain late last week. Of course, it was just a sprinkle, and today (Sunday) the fields look as dry as ever. But, according to the calendar fall is here, and the leaves are beginning to show it even as we turn our focus more to the work of harvest.

Last week the crew cut and brought in most of the winter squash, which feels like a big milestone in the year. We still have much to bring in over the next few weeks, including some fun new crops — all the grains for the Full Diet CSA, as well as some exciting winter vegetable crops.

Perhaps one of the most exciting new winter vegetables crops is the biggest kohlrabi we’ve ever grown! It’s a long season crop that is intended for winter storage. Each one is about the size of a human head, and the interior flesh in the one we tried was smooth and delicious. I’m sure that when we give these out, people will groan a little at the size (“How am I going to fit that in my fridge???”), but hopefully you’ll be converted by the flavor.

Two more new crops for us: celery (see “Meet this Week’s Veggies”) and acorn winter squash! Acorn squash may seem like a silly “new” thing, since acorn is probably the most commonly grown squash among market farmers (presumably because it’s an earlier harvest and ready for the last few markets of the year). For some reason, we’ve always “poo pooed” this squash, assuming that it’s earliness would require a sacrifice in sweetness. But, this year we decided to give it a go, especially after reading a particularly enticing variety description in a seed catalog last winter.

We ate our first acorn squash last week, and we were all hooked (including Rusty!). It’s my current favorite thing to cook, and you get to try it this week too. My favorite preparation method right now is to cut it in half, scoop out the seeds, and then slice into thin slices and roast until crispy on the outside. You can pick them up and eat them like chips — delicious!

In terms of other fall work, Casey has been slowly (when he has time) working in spent fields to prepare for cover crops (and/or grain crops). And, we’re starting to make more specific plans for infrastructure projects this fall and winter, which feels like a significant turn in our brains. We have a lot we need to do before the start of next year’s CSA seasons, and the list is overwhelming until we realize how much can happen in four months (to drive this point home, we remind ourselves that four months is basically the entire growing season this year — we’ve done almost everything in the last four months!).

As far as my fall work, I’m preparing for the start of next year’s season by collecting sign-up forms and getting everything tidied on the computer. Of course, I’m doing this in quick moments when baby is napping and Rusty is at his Mimi’s house — or after hours, when both children are asleep.

To that end, here’s a reminder that we’re accepting sign-ups for 2013 now!

Enjoy this week’s vegetables!

Your farmers, Katie & Casey Kulla