CSA For September 11th!

All the tomatoes under fleece! Two five-hundred foot rows!
Thanks for pal Deb who came and helped!

The last thirty six hours, for us, have been all about frost!  Wednesday night had a possibility (although I don't think it happened) and tonight's forecast low of -2 Celsius ( about 29 F.) will absolutely do some damage.  Wednesday afternoon we put aside soap making and barn cleaning and a few other chores to cover, protect and harvest everything we could!  The summer squash will not make it through temperatures below freezing so we took everything we could find.  Today's CSA families will get a handful of the delightful wee baby summer squash and free choice of some larger green and yellow zucchini.  We saved enough big ones for Tuesday's families, because they will hold well.  And we donated a bunch to Samaritan House.  We had to make hard decisions today: dig potatoes or keep harvesting tender veggies?  The tender veggies won out, so there are no potatoes for CSA today!

The cucumbers will probably not survive also.  We have covered the Lemon Ball and part of one patch of slicing cukes but the rest will be left to fend for themselves.  The thing is, when frost comes, is that we only have so much stuff to cover stuff with!  And our priority:  the tomatoes and peppers.  It is unbelievable to us that our CSA families have not yet gotten a ripe tomato!  And it's almost the middle of September!  So we've picked some that were showing some colour and have 'tucked in' the rest!

We've given you a ton of links for using summer squash.  Here's one we've never, ever shared before: How about making your own gummy candy from dehydrated summer squash?

Everyone got a fairly good supply of cucumbers today.  I found this article very interesting: cucumbers as the new baguette!

Many of you will still have larger sizes of summer squash and here comes the winter squash!  All are fabulous stuffed - here's a link with a myriad of stuffing recipes!  We've taken the first of the Spaghetti squash today, and it and vegetable marrow, as well as large sizes of zucchini and Patty Pan are my favourite for stuffing.  The sweeter winter squash, such as Kabocha and Acorn, are lovely with a fruit stuffing.  Simple, easy and looks impressive on the plate!

It's 9:30 PM and I'm just finishing the blog post.  After getting home from CSA we've had a quick bite to eat, put the goats and chickens to bed, fed the dogs and cats, then picked some crab apples for some friends that want them but can't seem to get over here to pick their own.  It was getting too dark to even see the crab apples, so we've unloaded the CSA crates from the truck, checked all our frost protection and covered a few more things and there is nothing else we can do.  It is what it is - and we'll find out tomorrow just what has transpired!

So for today, FULL SHARES:  Slicing cucumbers, Lemon Ball cucumbers, beets, Delicata, large Spaghetti squash, small 'Small Wonder' spaghetti squash (round one that looks like it has green netting), Acorn squash, Winter Sunshine Kabocha (the small orange one), green zucchini, small and large, yellow zucchini, Jalapeno and green bell pepper, corn, carrots.

PART SHARES:  Slicing cucumber, Lemon Ball cucumber, beets, Delicata, Spaghetti, Acorn and Winter Sunshine Kabocha winter squash, small green and yellow zucchini, large zucchinis, jalapeno pepper, corn, carrots.

SINGLE SHARES:  Slicing cucumbers, Lemon Ball cucumber, beets, Delicata, spaghetti, Acorn and 'Winter Sunshine' Kabocha winter squash, green and yellow baby zucchini, large zucchini, jalapeno, corn, carrots.