Hello Folks!

Happy almost Autumnal Equinox day...which incase you need a reminder, is on Friday the 22nd. This is my favorite time to be on the farm, cold mornings, warm (but not hot) days, breezy and celebratory. The perfect recipe for working hard all day without fatigue, reminding you that winter is coming and there is much to do before a somewhat unknown deadline. We continue to check off fall chores this week, which mostly means harvesting things, but also includes seeding more for winter, cultivating winter crops, roasting chilies for the winter CSA, deconstructing and then reconstructing tunnels, and continuing the great cooler shuffle. Warning, we may have a frost coming up this weekend, the temperatures look cooler and our farm is in a frost pocket near the river...this means we can be 7 degrees cooler than town...so be sure to get your beans and cherry tomatoes this week as there is a chance it will be the last week for them!

A huge thanks to all of you who did your part towing the tomato line this weekend at the market. Apparently you can take the girl out of the Badger state but not the badger out of the girl. Hopefully processing the tomato boxes was an enjoyable experience for a cool, drizzly weekend. In our house we made a big batch of salsa for both fresh eating and small batch canning...which has its pros and cons. Pro is that it is magically delicious, Con is the shameful amount of tortilla chips we have consumed as of late. We are thinking our project for this weekend will be homemade ketchup...as there are still a lot of boxes of tomatoes that need to disappear! Meaning you still have a chance to do your part if you missed the tomato pledge drive this past weekend. If we can bring ourselves back North of the boarder this week (no promises), other things we would like to consume are cabbage and mushroom hand pies. We got a great recipe from the 6 seasons cookbook by Joshua McFadden and will let you know how it goes. Pastry seems to be a lovely vessel for both sweet and savory in the fall and if you aren't up for putting away a box of tomatoes, you can do your part with a savory tomato pie. If you are feeling less ambitious, homemade tomato soup is an easy trade and will be sure to keep the chilly fall nights at bay. We are heading into another round of broccoli on the farm, last one of the season. Be sure to roast some this week with crushed garlic, red pepper flakes and olive oil. Arugula is back for severalweeks and can be blended with late summer flavors like peaches or apples. Add some sharp cheese and an apple cider dressing and you have the perfect autumnal lunch.

We have 6 more weeks of our regular market CSA season and folks are starting to run out of money on their accounts...which is actually a good thing because it means you are not only eating well, but you are eating healthy! In years past I have been able to runyour accounts at a loss and bill you at the end but this year with our new electronic system I have to have a positive balance for the system to work. So, if you run out of money, you can either just keep coming to the stand and pay as your go or you can add more money to your account for the last 6 weeks and keep your discount. If you would like to know your balance, please just ask at the stand next time you visit. If you are a farm stand member, I will be sending out a balance sheet as soon as I get caught up on the accounts this week.

Looking forward to seeing many of you soon!

Katie

This Week's Harvest

Kale

Collard

Chard

Head Lettuce

Spicy Mix

Arugula

Radishes

Green, Savoy, and red Cabbage

Broccoli

Tomatoes, lots of kinds!

Eggplant

Bell Peppers

Red Onions

Green and Cranberry Beans

Yukon Gold Potatoes

Garlic

Fennel

Flowers

Farmer's Journal

My favorite time to be on the farm