foxlinecityfarm

2 frosty mornings and we know Autumn is here. We harvested all the peppers and the last of the green beans from the outside gardens before the chilly nights and closed the sides on the hoop houses. We LOVE this time of year.

We are hauling heavy and colorful harvests out of the gardens these days. The sweet potato bonanza continues and hopefully the last of them will be out of the ground by the end of next week. Absolutely amazing and we will have a bounty of sweet potatoes in the last 2 shares. 15 crates out of a 1/2 row and now we ponder where we are going to store them all.

We have a few more potatoes to pull out, but we are on the other side of that big job for sure.

Our goal is to get a truckload of squash and pumpkins every day and we are in front of that too right now. We are having fun but it does feel a bit odd not to be transplanting or seed starting.

CSA #16

Head Lettuce-I think this week’s lettuce harvest is the best of the season. Crisp, flavorful, HUGE! and beautiful.

Winter Squash- Full share select 2 snack pack select 1. A great variety to choose from. Acorns, delicata, butternuts, and a few unusual ones too.

Ornamental Pumpkins-We have the driveway all set for members to select their favorite.

Heirloom Upstate baby potatoes-Fantastic steamed or roasted. Smooth buttery flavor.

Purple potatoes(Full Only)-These are a family favorite and the best mashed and a fun surprise at dinner.

Peppers-We harvested all that was in the field before the frost and a selection of the sweets are in all the shares.

Green Beans!-(full only)-last of these too for the season.

Cabbage/chinese cabbage-Final minis from the garden. 1 or the other in the shares this week.

Carrots-We had a goal this season to plant more carrots. A great harvest this week. Final carrot crop out of hoop 2 on Sunday. Enjoy!

2 MORE SHARES REMAIN THIS SEASON!-LAST PICK UP OCTOBER 13TH

BEST GUESS FOR NEXT WEEK….BRUSSELS SPROUTS, HEAD LETTUCE, LEEKS, POTATOES, SWEET POTATOES, GARLIC, ONIONS, KALE AND MORE…

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A week of clean-up around the gardens….”wide open spaces” the theme. All tomatoes are gone and trellises coming down. Feels odd not to focus on tomatoes as it has been a constant since March. Our favorite activity this time of year is visiting the squash/pumpkin patch and we are diving in. The 1st truck load came out and Maeve drove! She drives we load…

We are thrilled with the spinach harvest starting up again and looking to pull the final carrot crop from hoop 2. The chill is in the air and somehow Autumn is here. Fun ornamental(and edible) pumpkins in our future. Pumpkin harvest is always fun. Beautiful unexpected gifts are found under those big leaves after a season of hard work. “WOW! come look at this one” we say over and over. It’s been a wonderful season.

CSA #15

Head lettuce-I love growing lettuces. The differences in flavor, texture, and colors are very interesting to me. We harvested 2 varieties this week. A green leafy summer crunch that is a huge muppet head and delicious and a dark-colored summer crisp. Green heads in snack and both in full this week.

Spinach-Our first big harvest of the fall season. Delicious and juicy and glad it is back with the cool temperatures. Triple rinsed and ready to eat.

We are experimenting this Fall. We transplanted spinach in a checkerboard pattern (as usual) and also direct seeded in the hoop house in rows. We are going to see if we notice any differences.

Carrots!-Grown in hoop 2. The variety is called Romance and a favorite.

Storage onions-A few from our curing rack in the shed. A great onion year. The variety is Dakota.

Sweet potato-Best ever harvest for us-and that is fun to say. Enjoy!

Italian Fry Peppers-Sweet and colorful.

Green Beans-This is the “Hail Mary” crop we planted. Never know if they will produce in time with weather and day length. They made it! And the longest beans we ever picked.

Garlic-We will have garlic in every other week shares until the end….

Squash!-Finally…it is here! We will have Squash out for share members to select a favorite. Snack choose 1 Full Share choose 2. Great selection including heirlooms.

Cilantro-Trays are out to cut what members wish….

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A fun fast week around here! The 3 inches of rain changed our clean-up plans as we were not too excited to slip around in the mud and pull up irrigation in the sloppy fields. So we kept ourselves busy with hoop house duties and other tasks that have been taking the back burner this summer. And on a few of those chilly days, long johns were on! It is starting to feel like Fall for sure. We are digging the “best ever!” sweet potato harvest whenever we have time and spent a few hours yesterday pulling some beauties from the field. It’s amazing and we are thrilled. Get ready to eat a lot of sweet potatoes!

CSA #14

Head Lettuce-We are rocking the lettuce this year! Beautiful romaine and summer crisp this week.

Edamame-This is the last of that mountain of Edamame we harvested this season. Quick blanch and eat the bean from the pod with a bit of salt. We love it on fresh salads.

Potatoes-This week’s selection is Peter Wilcox. Purple skin and white flesh. Bake, fry, roast, or mash it is wonderful. A delicious all-around potato.

Shallots-A few more of these little delights. We had a great shallot onion season.

Sunflower bouquet-A little beauty to feed the soul. A fun CSA tradition for us in the Fall.

Beets-These beauties came out of hoop 2. This is the last of the beets for the season.

Micro Greens-This is a snappy mix of assorted radishes. The perfect garnish for a fresh salad or a cream soup.

Peppers-We pulled a few more Italian fry peppers from the plants this week. And assorted Bells for full share only. Hot or mildly hot peppers on the extra table.

Baby Spinach!-(Full Share only)-The start of the spinach from hoop 2. Enough for Full Share only this week but more to come. Another sure sign of the change of season to wonderful Autumn.

BEST GUESS FOR NEXT WEEK-Squash!, potatoes, sweet potatoes, head lettuce, carrots, onions, peppers, leeks, and more…..

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And just like that Autumn rolls in….the shade cloths coming off the hoop houses always signal the change of season.

We rocked garden clean up this week! We pulled out the early brassicas and tossed them in the compost pile. We pulled the cucumber vines off the trellis and tomatoes too. More landscape tarp came up and stored and irrigation rolled up to recycle.

We direct seeded in some late arugula in hoop 1 and our treat for the week was dig some early sweet potatoes.

We checked the squash and pumpkin patch and almost ready! Hopefully next week we will be able to harvest some winter squash.

CSA #13

Fun fact. The week is our heaviest CSA share EVER! A new record! 1318 pounds going home with members. A bounty!

Head lettuce-Just beautiful lettuce this week from Hoop 1. It is delicious and so pretty.

Watermelon-Another great harvest. HUGE! guys and seedless minis.

Cherry tomatoes-This is the last week (I think) for cherry tomatoes….enjoy the last of these little delights.

Potatoes-Gold rush is the variety and (another) personal favorite. Dry and fluffy great for mashed and fried. Baked too!

Sweet potatoes-Get ready the harvest is amazing. We planted tons and early too to ensure a nice long season after last year’s so so harvest. 2 varieties went in this is the early one.

Peppers-Italian fry peppers in all the shares and cute little lunchbox sweet peppers in full share only this week. Hot peppers and mildly hot peppers on the extra table.

Garlic-more from our stash….garlic will be in every other week until season end.

Onions-1st of the storage onions cured down in our shed.

Kohlrabi-This variety is a german heirloom. A jumbo and not woody. Peel and eat raw or add to stirfry or roast.

Green beans-Full share only this week….and good news the late “hail mary” crop is flowering. We will have a other rotation of late beans! We are thrilled.

Best guess for next week….leaf lettuce, edamame, beets, potatoes, winter squash??, onions, peppers AND another surprise or 2.

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Happy September and Happy Back to School for all the kids in our CSA family. It is going to be a wonderful year!

Last of the tomatoes cooking down for delicious winter meals….and our thoughts turn to Autumn squash and potato harvesting.

We had a powerhouse week again. The last of the Fall Spinach was transplanted into hoop 2-the jumbo!!! edamame crop harvested and cleaned, a big beet harvest out and washed for future shares, 3 lettuce rotations decided they were ready at the same time so a great lettuce harvest this week too. Maeve and Jennifer harvested the watermelon as the rainstorm hit, got them all in record time and then danced in the rain to celebrate.

AND we started cleanup!!! An all-time season record for us for being on the ball and tackling this early and not leaving it until the end. Thank you Jeannie for pulling all those beans and cantaloupe and summer squash with us…we even rolled up the landscape fabric. We are on a happy roll!

CSA #12

Head Lettuce Trio-A wonderful mix surprised us this week. Several varieties. Delicious and colorful.

Edamame-Delicious! We love it steamed and eat right from the warm salted pod. Great with fresh salads or in spaghetti sauce. A treat!

Watermelon-A great harvest of the mini watermelon. 3 varieties and some seedless….Sweet and perfectly sized. IF by chance we guess wrong and you receive 1 overripe under ripe or just not quite right please grab another next week. We think we got it but sure hard to know for sure without cutting….A perfect treat to mark the end of summer.

Peppers-We had a great pepper harvest this week. We pulled a few more of the italian fry peppers green as they are so crowded and also pulling the plants over as they are sooooo heavy. More to come. Bells in the Full share this week and assorted mildly hot to hot peppers on the extra table for the members that like a bit of heat. Hot peppers are never added to the shares.

Shallots-The first of the storage shallots and onions. Great mild flavor.

Summer Squash-The OFICIAL END-we pulled the plants. A great run….

Brussels Sprouts!-We planted an extra early variety and started them extra early in the greenhouse. After last year’s sad crop failure we wanted to make sure we had a long abundant season of this favorite. Enjoy the sneak of the bottom of the stalks.

Cherry Tomatoes-Another bounty! Maeve is the super washer and packer.

Slice Paste Tomatoes….this is the end we think….a good long 5 weeks of harvest.

Leeks-The 1st harvest of early leeks enough for Full Share only this week. The BEST with fried potatoes.

Green Beans-(Snack only)-We just started the harvest on this 2nd to last rotation in the garden…more to come.

Radish-(Full only)-We had a small space open up a while back in Hoop 2. We seeded in enough radishes for Full Share. More Autumn radishes to come.

Cantaloupe….(Full Only) These are the last of the cantaloupe from the patch harvested before we pulled the vines.

BEST GUESS FOR NEXT WEEK-potatoes, head lettuce, heirloom kohlrabi-the jumbo guys!, peppers, garlic, watermelon, beets, storage onions and maybe a surprise…..hmmmmmm

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