CSA- EXTENDED WEEK 3

This Week’s Harvest

Farm News

I was on an OEFFA Policy Council conference call last week and during our pre meeting check-in, a fellow organic vegetable farmer said “now begins the season of repair, rest and renewal”, which really resonated with me. We have to repair and renew not only our equipment but also ourselves! The change of pace is welcome and completely necessary as I don’t think we’d be able to do another season without it!

Repairs are well underway. Towards the end of the season our pick up truck bed was in really rough shape. There were holes in the bed so you could see right down to the grass, it was super loose from the frame and would jump and jerk over the very uneven field roads, and everybody stopped riding in it out to the fields! So project number one was giving the truck a facelift. The new bed is awesome and we’ve already gotten to enjoy it a few times.

Using the tractor to take the old truck bed off
Changed over to a flat bed!
Ben uses the awning of our metal barn has his vehicle repair shop

In the last few weeks we have also finally had time to set up a new dunk tank that starts the wash-line for our muddy root vegetables. The vegetables get dunked in a large basin with jets that spray and move the vegetables through the water. After its soaked in its bath, a conveyer is switched on and the vegetables get collected on the belt and taken up to the brush washer, then dumped onto the rinse conveyer for a final rinse.

A vegetable’s version of a hot tub?
A pile of gravel is not an uncommon site this time of year.

While we’ve starting in on the “repair” work of winter already, we aren’t quite to the “rest” portion yet with vegetable sales still so active. Our final market was this past weekend and after the CSA delivery goes out today, then we will rest! At points in the summer our youngest says she can’t wait for winter. She knows that it means reading time at bed, family game nights, and just more attention in general! We hope our customers have a restful rejuvenating winter as well!

Penultimate market of the year!
Penultimate CSA share of the season!
Lush green cover crop is a sure sign we are in good shape going into winter!

Recipes