2021 CSA Farm Update: Week 21

Hello again everyone and welcome to week 21 of the Katchkie Farm CSA. In this penultimate week of the CSA, we have a wonderful array of fall vegetables to grace your plates. You are truly eating as a we do on the farm. Gone are the days of tomato and basil salad and here are the days of warm hearty baked sweet potatoes with a side roasted broccoli.

The first fall frosts are such a special time of the growing season. We never know quite when they will arrive, but they certainly make their presence known. Mornings such as we are having this week are truly a gift. On the way to the farm is the time to see how busy Jack Frost was during the night. If he was not too busy, we will start in the fields as the sun slowly comes up over the horizon erasing all the work of Mr. Frost. Sometimes however, we need the sun to warm the field veggies a good hour or so until the field “thaw”.

There is a fine line between frosted and frozen. Frosted is increased sweetness and frozen will turn to mush once thawed! Each vegetable has is own line between those two as well. Once the harvest is well under way the sun has warmed us as well as the vegetables and the deep blue sky is underlaid by the shimmering autumn colors. I cannot think of a finer way to spend a workday.

Sooner or later the last kale from the field will be picked and hopefully we have heeded the words of a favorite children song:

“Hurry, hurry, hurry
We must all get fat and fury
Not a moment to be lost
I can hear old Jackie Frost”

Until next time,
Farmer Jon