Casey harvesting Concord grapes for the CSA
What a beautiful fall afternoon for harvesting! It’s days like this that drew us to our work to begin with — Casey ends up working outside in all kinds of weather throughout the year. You name it; he’s worked in it: heat waves, wind storms, downpours, cold spells. He has even milked a cow on pasture in deep snow!
Admittedly, sometimes working in all kinds of inclement weather can be exciting. But when the weather seems to stall into a long period of something hard, such as very hot weather or very rainy weather, it does eventually lose its appeal. Not because being outside in all weather is hard, but more because often the work itself just gets harder because weather affects more than just our bodies. In hot weather, we have to be mindful of what time of day we harvest certain crops and how quickly we get them into cold rinse water and then the cooler. In rainy weather, every motion can take just a little bit longer because of the delays in working to avoid making mud (for example, we’re less likely to drive our field vehicle down a row and so each individual bin has to be carried a longer distance).
But then days like today come along and the golden sunlight falls so gently over everything. Birds sing. The fall harvests offer up their abundance. This season is a gift every single year. We’re soaking it in, knowing that the darker and wetter weather is soon to come!
Although this late fall will look very different for our family as we are ending the CSA in mid-October rather than late November (or even mid-December as we did our early years before we learned that some weather is just not worth working through). It will feel unusual to be done a month earlier, but it will be good this year — after 13 long seasons, a slightly earlier end will provide room for some other work. Plus, this CSA season will still have been 40 weeks long! After all these years, I still marvel at how this farm can produce such a wide range of delicious fresh food for such a very long season. We all get to eat well, in many kinds of weather!
Enjoy this week’s vegetables!
Your farmers, Katie & Casey Kulla
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Commit now for 2019! We’re taking commitments for our 2019 season now, even though we don’t know the details yet. In our experience, it’s EVER so much easier for everyone to get on board while we’re all still in the rhythm of the weekly CSA harvest. Then we can do the work of communicating what you need to know over the winter, and you can rest easy knowing that your CSA produce is coming!
After realizing that our website forms had stopped working sometime this summer, I’m going back to tried and true sign-up methods for now: you can sign up on the clipboard at CSA pick-up or drop me a quick email to let me know how many items you estimate you’ll want next year! (You can always change later.) Let me know if you have any questions!
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Meet this week’s vegetables:
- Apples
- Grapes
- Pears
- Cauliflower
- Broccoli
- Salad mix
- Peppers
- Kale
- Carrots
- Potatoes
- Winter squash — Various kinds!
- Onions
