This Week’s Harvest

• Arugula
• Brussels sprouts
• Potatoes
• Sweet Potatoes
• Rainbow Carrots
• Scarlet Turnips
• Broccoli OR Cabbage
• Bok Choi
• Purple Daikon Radish
• Garlic

Farm News

This week marks the end to our regular Community Supported Agriculture season! Usually I do a season in review for the final blog post so I’ll keep that tradition going here. 

We’ve had a great year and much of that is due to our employees, many of whom have been with us for at least 3 years. The consistency and experience that come with long term employees really help daily operations to run smoothly and allow us to withstand any unexpected surprises or challenges.  One such challenge was when I landed in the hospital to have my appendix removed! In July of all times!! Audrey, Nate, and Charity are our full time crew during the season and we had 6 part time employees: Jewell (CSA packing), Ian (delivery), Anna (harvest), Nilofer (harvest), Nicolas (harvest), and Jake (post harvest wash and pack). We had staff join when the need arose this fall, help from past employees from time to time on particularly busy days, and we even had CSA members help us out at market so that I could make it to some of Evan’s cross country meets which was a new fall activity for the family this year (thanks Carol and Angela!).

Some highlights for the season for me include progress in our broccoli production. We found a couple varieties that we like. They did alright in the spring and good in the fall so we’ll grow them again next year. Broccoli is tough to grow in the Ohio climate and varieties we like keep getting discontinued! So fingers crossed Lieutenant and Durapak are here to stay.  

Carrots did well for us. The summer carrots did the best summer carrots can do and we had enough despite some getting flooded out. But the fall carrots that have been in past few boxes are the real stars. We grow rainbow carrots for fun but they always under perform the regular orange Bolero variety we grow. We almost cut them entirely from production but instead tried a couple different varieties and have the best rainbow carrots we’ve ever grown!  

I was looking forward to saying this was the first year ever we didn’t have any major breakdowns or repairs- disabled tractors, broken down delivery trucks, broken well pumps and the like. As our farm has grown over the years, the increase usage in equipment has certainly led to wear and tear and something is always broken it seems. This year we were chugging along pretty well with no major issues until about a month ago. Unfortunately while Ben was hilling up beds to over winter and use in the spring with our 2021 John Deere tractor, it broke. Unlike our other ancient equipment, this new tractor is still under warranty so that’s good! But this is the second time it’s been out of commission in its short life- not good! We do miss having it and some of our fall harvest and clean up conditions haven’t been the best they could be without it. 

The most exciting development on the farm this year was the installation of our solar array! Our excitement is a bit restrained as we are still waiting on the inverters that have been back ordered since August so it isn’t hooked up to the grid yet! But an inspiring accomplishment nonetheless!

With no crop failures to report, and years of experience under our belt, we are happy with the quality of produce and the variety we offered CSA members this year. For those of you who missed it last week, I wrote: We hope that you have enjoyed all the produce and variety this season, made some new keeper recipes, discovered you actually like a vegetable you thought you didn’t, and at least once declared “this is the best [insert veggie here] I have ever had!” If so, we have done our jobs! Thanks for trusting us with part of your grocery budget! 

Recipes

Bok Choi with Peanut Sauce (an adjustment to make with the mature Bok Choi is to chop and sauté stems with the onions and garlic. Then add the leaves with step 4 but it will take more like 5 minutes for them to wilt. Also either only use half the Bok Choi, or use all of it and double recipe)

Pan Roasted Vegetables with Chicken (sub arugula for the spinach)

Sweet Potato Curry (sub Bok Choi for the kale)

We hope that you decide to join us for the extended season, and if not then, then hopefully next season! Thanks for your support!