Mid October on the Farm...

The weather took a very sudden turn there from a Summery Fall week to a Wintery one.  I had quite a bit of work to do just picking up all the odds and ends that had blown around in the high winds last week.  The days are getting a whole lot shorter now, too;  we will work on getting some lighting in the farm stand this week so that you can find your share when you come! 
With the work load slowing down, and Jack planning to take a family trip to Hawaii this Fall, we decided we should all take turns having some time off.  This is my week, so I will work a bit today and then be off Island for Tuesday through Friday!  I am hoping, if the weather permits, to go on an overnight adventure on my sailboat, which was given to me years ago but I'm just this year finally getting around to taking out on the water.
We are beginning to prepare for our final sizable field project; planting our garlic seed for next year's garlic.  It goes in at the end of October or early November, and will take several days by the time we prep the fields, separate all the seed and get it planted.  Hope to have even more garlic for next year, because other than the garlic we've held on to for farm shares and seed, we are all out already!
Have a great week!
Tomatoes-  All good things gotta come to an end...I've been talking about the last days of the tomatoes for a while, and now I think they're here.  "Late blight", the disease that almost always kills our tomatoes sooner or later, is spreading like wild fire with this cold wet weather.  We still have time for one last big pick though!
Spinach-  Can't have too much spinach in the Fall, and I can't seem to plant too much.  These nice little bunches should be great for a salad or for cooking.
Carrots-  After starting to worry about how many carrots we had left a few weeks ago, now I don't know what I was worrying about.  We have a whole planting we haven't even gotten into yet, and the beds we're digging right now are super nice carrots.
Winter Luxury Pumpkin-  These pumpkins are beautiful and delicious.  The nicest eating pumpkin I've ever found, with a pretty white webbing that looks a little like decoration on the skin.  As Jack and I were just talking about, while they are related pumpkins are actually pretty different from squash;  while squash are all from the Americas, the pumpkin is native to Africa.  This is our first year growing pumpkin on the Farm, and they've done great.  Super good for a soup or stew, a curry, or baking.  They should store on the counter top for weeks or months before you use them if you'd like a little Fall decoration too.
"Cabernet" Red Onions-  We planted these red storage onions as a bit of an afterthought when our red onion seed we ordered didn't arrive.  They didn't exactly take off after being planted late, so they are a bit on the small side, but they are a really nice red onion that should keep for quite a while and be great on sandwiches, salads etc.
Eggplant-  The eggplants are always very productive in October, although as a subtropical they are also very sensitive to frost, and usually the first crop to go down if the weather gets down into the mid thirties.  So far so good...we have lots of nice fruits and the nights haven't threatened to get that cold yet, although there is a chill in the air...

Large Shares:
Collard Greens-  A nice bunch of our collard bunching greens.  I love to eat these this time of year...use them just like you would kale, but cook them just a minute or two longer as the leaves have a bit more thickness to them.
Broccoli-  I hope you're not overwhelmed after getting an enormous head of broccoli last week!  This week's will be a more modest size, easy to use in a salad or stir fry.
Hot pepper-  A few of our chile peppers.  Anaheim, cherry bomb, poblano, or Serrano.  Great for spicing up a recipe and adding some peppery flavor.

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