It's October!

It's October....but no pumpkins in the share until next week!
Here's what is in your share this week....
Apples!  I picked these apples from some apple trees on the property Bobbie and I used to live at in Greenbank.  They are mixed varieties, all very tasty!  Some may be a bit underripe and could benefit from being kept at room temperature for few more days.
Broccoli-  Broccoli is back on, at long last!  We've got some beautiful heads forming, in spite of the fact that the pesky deer nibbled on some of the leaves a few weeks ago.  Fall broccoli is the best!
Spinach-  Some nice sweet spinach....another crop that I think is best this time of year.  We haven't had spinach in the share since back in June, I think, so enjoy.
Garlic-  We've now sorted all of our garlic to make sure we keep enough for seed, so we have lots of nice food garlic to give out in farm shares!
Blue potatoes-  These blue spuds have been in your shares a few times now as a mix with yellow and reds, but this week if we have enough we'll give you just straight blues.  Potatoes instead of winter squash this week, to give you a little squash hiatus.
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/blue-potatoes-mashed-with-roasted-garlic-recipe-1911752
Beets-  More sweet red, gold, and chioggia beets.  We have lots and lots of beets left in the field still, so they will make a few more appearances in the farm shares.
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/nancy-fuller/roasted-beet-salad-with-walnuts-and-goat-cheese-2383008
Solana-  This is a term for the tomatoes, peppers and eggplants.  The plants keep chugging along in spite of some cooler nights, but they are slowing down a bit, so i'm not certain we'll have enough of any one to put in all shares.  Let me know if you have a strong preference for tomatoes, peppers, or eggplants....no guarantee, but I can try to get you your preferred one if you let me know!

And also in large shares:
Leeks-  Lots of beautiful leeks still out in the field.
Scarlet Runner beans-  These are fresh shelling beans, in the pod, so I hope you're up for a small project!  The beans are large and pretty easy to shell, but it takes a bit of time to pop them out of the pods.  Then you can cook them similar to a dry bean, but as they are not fully dried, they don't need to be presoaked, and only need to boil in water for a half hour or so.  They are beautiful and delicious!
https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/member/views/scarlet-runner-beans-bacon-52837131
Carrots-  No surprise here...these are coming from a new bed of carrots, but they are the same variety, Hilmar.
Cabbage-  I hope we have enough of these beautiful green smooth leaf cabbages to put one in each of the large shares this week.
https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/cabbage-stir-fry-with-coconut-and-lemon

As summer turns to Fall on the farm, we begin the field cleanup....bringing in the hoses, drip tape and sprinklers now that irrigation season is over, taking down the t posts and twine of trellis and row cover and mulch that has served as crop protection....and begin mowing things down, tilling them in, and planting cover crop to grow through the winter months.
The remaining potatoes and winter squash come into the barn for Fall storage, and the tractors and implements get stored out in the field until the farm reawakens in the Spring.
It has been a great Season!  Some strange weather at times, and a bit of confusing crop behavior, but on the whole I am really happy with how things have turned out this year.  Last week I went through my annual process of stressing out about not having planted enough food -for no particular reason- but then after we put together what I thought was a great farm share, packed a nice order for the Orchard Kitchen, and packed the farm stand to the gills with produce, I realized I was being insane.
It is always a challenge for me to stay busy and earn income in the Winter months, and this year I have gotten a great opportunity to do carpentry with Heggenes Construction.  I'll be beginning that gig soon, so Brian and Jess will be doing extra work around the farm to keep the farm share going.  I will still be around and seeing many of you at farm share pickup on Thursday evenings.  And I haven't forgotten about getting a light in the farm stand!