Meet this week’s vegetables
This week’s share is the last of the ‘main’ season! And what a wonderful season it has been. In every way, this first year has exceeded the expectations we brought south with us from Bellingham this March. Watching our own garden grow filled us with more joy than we imagined possible. There are certainly many things we will adjust next year (many of which you have also mentioned in your thoughtful surveys), but overall we felt great about our first year farming with our own hands on the reins.
And, we’ve said it before (and we’ll say it again), the welcome and support we received from you, our community of eaters, was the best gift of the season. As we will continue to work on our growing practices in future years, we also hope to continue fostering the ‘community’ aspect of community supported agriculture. We had such fun at the pick-up site talking with everyone that we definitely plan to provide more opportunities for gatherings at the farm, including optional group work parties (to replace this year’s workdays), potlucks and other seasonally inspired celebrations in the fields.
We’ll be sending out next year’s brochure and sign-up information with a month or two. Unless your address has changed, you should be receiving one in the mail. We hope that your experience this summer has been as positive as ours and that we will be welcoming you to the farm community again next year.
If you’re continuing with us for the fall share this year, the routine will be the same as the summer: Tuesday pick-up between 3:30 and 6:30 here at the farm (through Dec. 12).
Either way, thank you; thank you; thank you.
Have a fun and safe Halloween; delight in fall and winter; and enjoy the vegetables!
Your farmers,
Katie & Casey Kulla
Oakhill Organics
P.S. A note on freezing tomatoes & peppers!
Sunday night brought our first hard freeze, which is a test—how well have we prepared for the onset of cold weather in our winter garden? We were pleased to see that our fields survived beautifully; no black plants greeted our eyes there.
We were a bit surprised, however, by our hoop house, which we had hoped would carry us a little longer into the season. Either the temperatures were very low, or a cold wild blew through the house, because every single tomato, pepper, and eggplant plant was killed.
Really, this isn’t such a big deal—having these types of plants this late into October is a feat in itself. We only wished we had had the foresight to pick the ripe fruit before the first freeze. Instead we did it Monday afternoon. As we picked, we tried to sort out the fruit that was frost damaged, but some of it may have ended up in your bags. If you have some ‘texture problems,’ we recommend using these last tomatoes and peppers of the season to make a cooked salsa or sauce.
