Thursday, October 18, 2012

CSA Share Week #19

A beautiful bean crop killed off by the weekend freeze.




Last weekends’ record cold temps throughout the Northeast had everyone here scrambling in their winter gear to pull crops from the fields before the cold zapped the life out of things. Picking and washing produce in that kind of weather is downright physically hard and even painful, but we just couldn’t afford to lose the many beautiful crops that we knew wouldn’t survive the snap. (Ironically, up until this weekend, we had not had a single frost.)

Unfortunately, there was not enough time to get everything in. For instance, we lost the best bean crop we’ve had all season (see pic). It was abundant and gorgeous.

As has been a running theme this CSA season, this week’s share has managed to remain sizable but not quite with a wide change in variety. We regret you have been seeing a lot of repeat items, as we wait for many of the classic fall crops that can take some time (i.e. broccoli and cauliflower) come to size. They were planted on time in the summer but suffered from lack of rain in those first weeks. Even irrigation wasn’t quite enough. Many farms we know say they are in the same boat.

We have a couple pounds of potatoes in the share this week. Potatoes were one of many storage crops that took a real beating through this summer’s excessive heat and drought. We estimate that we lost more than 90 percent of this crop. We’ve just had to accept that this is one staple our members won’t be seeing beyond this week.

We intentionally paired the potatoes this week with leeks and parsley so that anyone craving a warming bowl of potato-leek soup can do so. Here at the farm, it’s definitely one of our favorites. Of course, we have lots of ways we love to eat potatoes.

  IN THIS WEEK’S SHARE:
1 bunch leeks
1 head frissee
1 bunch swiss chard
2 pounds potatoes
¾ pounds green or purple beans
6 1/2 ounces arugula
1 bunch opal basil
1 bunch parsley
1 head romaine lettuce
1 head green leaf lettuce
 
FRUIT SHARE:
Empire apples
(Seckel pears for those groups that did not receive them last year)
   

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