by milecreekfarm

CSA Week 16

This Week’s Harvest

Tomatoes
Bell peppers
Sweet Italian peppers
Escarole
Kale
Red onions
Potatoes
Celery
Cucumber- last of the season!
Cantaloupe- last of the season!
Beets

Farm News

It’s technically still summer, but this week the farm was full of signs of fall. We’ve been busy mowing finished crops and discing and chisel plowing fields as we get ready to put them to rest for the winter. We noticed our first deer damage- they always leave our crops alone until the fall. Last year they munched on our beet greens which was fine with us, as we were just using the roots. This year is a bit more dramatic- they seem to love escarole and it looks like they can take the whole plant in one bite! The harvest has transitioned from afternoons spent just harvesting tomatoes, to having more to time to harvest a potato bed or 2 whenever we can. Brassica season has started back up with kale and we’ll be picking more and more crops from this large vegetable family to fill our shares. I truly love fall: the weather is still nice, the farm pace slows to a more manageable clip, and we still have bountiful harvests!

I picked this field of summer squash one last time for market on Friday and then Ben followed behind and mowed it all down.
By Monday afternoon all the plastic was loosened and out of the field. We love quick turnarounds! Next up this field will be disced and then sown to cover crop.
Uh oh…looks like the deer have found- and love- escarole! We’ll have to cover the bed (and the salad mix next to it) with row cover to keep the deer off.
The sweet potato crop looks so good this year! I can’t wait to dig them up and see how the roots look. But first we have to finish digging the regular potatoes.
Certain potato varieties have done really well for us this year. Pictured is a favorite- Kennebec
The Brassica field is growing nicely. I love all the shades of green. Hope you are ready for cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, radishes, kohlrabi, and other greens and roots that fall in this family! It’s a big one and grows well in the fall here in Ohio.
It’s been a dry September so the irrigation is still going 24/7, though there are less and less things to water each week

Recipes

Potato and Celery Soup

Jambalya with Sausage, celery and peppers

Braised Potatoes and Escarole

Cucumber and Celery Salad

Coming Up Next Week (our best guess….) Carrots, Escarole, Salad Mix, Potatoes, Jalapeños, Watermelon, Celery, Eggplant, Garlic, Basil, Honeynut Squash