foxlinecityfarm

Autumn. We like to plant a few sunflowers late in the season around the garden for the birds.

Dewdrops blanket the garden in the changing morning light.  Warm jackets, and we ponder if we really should put caps on while we work.  The garden is transitioning to Autumn.  Our duties shift to clean up, flipping the growing compost pile, cover crops, and still digging the last of the late potatoes from their beds. We are going to peek at the Sweet Potatoes and see if they are about ready.  This will be our last high volume harvest. Our end of season crops are in and the location for the garlic bed this year planned out.  A few late season “experimental crops” are germinating in the greenhouse for Winter Share hoop house growing and we are going to try some late Late! carrots in crates for a cold Winter sweet treat.

Green onions ready for transplant in the hoop house for a late season Winter share treat.

Baby Carrots growing in crates. We will move these to the hoop house when it gets cold to enjoy in November and December.

A slower pace and my favorite time of year.  This is the week we will harvest all the winter squash and it looks to be a wonderful harvest!  We will set them out to cure and they will appear in our final shares of the season and in the Winter Share bounties.

Acorn Squash on the vine.

One of Scott’s big goals this season was to have thick plump Autumn leeks and I think we finally did it.  Last winter we researched varieties and planting techniques and the results look wonderful in the field.  We trialed 3 varieties and all look seccessful.  We are looking forward to this late season harvest and big pots of potato leek soup.

Autumn Leeks!

We have had a fun project going on here the last few weeks.  Gail, a fellow CSA member gave Maeve a Monarch Butterfly catepillar and book about it’s life cycle.  We put the catepillar in a saved screened box that the bees were shipped in with milkweed and read the book and watched the catepillar transition to chrysalas. 12 days later the butterfly emerged.  On Monday night we set it free in the zinnia patch.  Thank You Gail for this amazing experience.

Maeve removing the butterfly from the box.

There he goes…..

Hanging out in the zinnia patch.

WHAT IS IN YOUR SHARE

581 pounds this week from the garden!

SNACK PACK

Garden Celery-Delicious flavorful stalks.  Perfect for soups and stews.

Shallots-Our first year offering these in the shares.  Enjoy this sweet treat.

1/2 Pint Cherry Tomato-The pretty assorted mix.

Slice/Paste Tomato Mix-A few colorful beauties.

Lettuce-The last of the hot summer crunch varieties.  The hoop house in now fully transitioned to cooler lettuces.

Mini Sweet Pepper Munchers-A bag of assorted colors and varieties.  All Sweet.

Sweet Jimmy Nardello Skinny Italian Frying Pepper-VERY! sweet thinned skinned red pepper.  Listed in the ” US ark of taste” by the slow food movement.

Sweet Jimmy Nardello peppers on the plant.

More pretty Jimmy’s in the garden.

Fennel-The last of the fennel for the season.  Wonderful grilled or roasted.

Sweet Corn-The end of the season on this crop for us.

Broccoli-The side shoot harvest from the summer broccoli plants.

Edamame-A second and final week of our favorite late summer snack.

FULL SHARE

Garden Celery-Delicious flavorful stalks.  Perfect for soups and stews.

Cleaning the celery for this week’s share.

Shallots-Our first year offering these in the shares.  Enjoy this sweet treat.

Maeve helped clean the shallots this week.

1/2 Pint Cherry Tomato-The pretty assorted mix.

Slice/Paste Tomato Mix-A few colorful beauties.

Lettuce-The last of the hot summer crunch varieties.  The hoop house in now fully transitioned to cooler lettuces.

Mini Sweet Pepper Munchers-A bag of assorted colors and varieties.  All Sweet.

Sweet Bell Peppers-A few in each share.

Radishes-A bag of crunchy red round radishes for this weeks salads.

Fennel-The last of the fennel for the season.  Wonderful grilled, roasted or added to cabbage slaw.

Sweet Corn-The end of the season on this crop for us.

Cabbage-A small head of that mini variety that we are so fond of.  Perfectly sized for a few meals and fresh eating.

Edamame-A second and final week of our favorite late summer snack.

Tiny Summer Squash-A few picked small from the new patch.

Best guess for next week-Spaghetti squash, spinach!, green beans, carrots, and more……

The final green bean crop is slow to develop in the cooler and shorter days….next week a bounty!