CSA For September 25th!

Panda Bear found it a hot day for working in the garden!

Yesterday was a disappointing day for us.  We were working on the potato harvest, checking winter squash and digging garlic.  Nothing has met expectations this year.  The winter squash foliage should be covering the plots and the squash should be ample.  Instead we have found little spread and the squash are few and far between.  Last year the butternut covered a thousand square feet and there were 50 or 60 squash.  This year: sparse foliage and maybe twelve butternut, none ripe and only three of a decent size.  The potato harvest was even more depressing:  we took up a full row of Linzer, a fingerling that is one of our favourites.  What should have given us twelve or up to fifteen pails of four to five inch long potatoes yielded about two pails of two to three inch potatoes.  Everything was done as usual.  Was it lack of heat?  Inconsistent water?  We could second-guess ourselves all day but yesterday was not a happy day!

These last few days of heat, although hard to work in, have been fantastic for the tomatoes!  If you follow us on Facebook, you may have seen this last night but we thought we'd share it here as well.  Fast and Easy Fresh Tomato Pasta Sauce!  Next week will be the last CSA share for the year and we will load you up with tomatoes: as ripe as we can and some that need to ripen on the counter!  You all know never, never, never put a tomato in the fridge, right?  Right???  Check out this post for ripening tomatoes indoors...you can even improve those tasteless, perfect-looking, store bought globes in mid-winter!

We'll be giving you big bundles of carrots today and carrots and beets next week.  Check out Tuesdays' blog posts for tips on storing root veggies in the fridge for extended periods.  Eat all the small ones first, or any with dings or scrapes - they won't keep well.  And eat some of those wee ones now - raw! They are delicious!  And have you made pesto with carrot tops yet?  It's awesome!

I'm liking the sound of this Pumpkin Streusel Cake!  How about a Pumpkin Spice Latte Mousse for dessert?  Even the littlest Kabocha or Acorn will yield enough to make these Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies with Cranberries and Walnuts!  Turn winter squash into a pasta sauce with this recipe.  The recipe calls for butternut but ours haven't done very well this year, we're thinking there wasn't enough heat for them.  However, the recipe would be great with Kabocha, Acorn, Hubbard..well almost all of them!  And save the seeds from your winter squash - they're all delightful, like these Spicy Roasted Squash Seeds!  The recipe for these Sweet Potato Fries would be great with any of our potatoes...but awesome with any of the winter squash, as well!  The dipping sauce sounds fantastic!

FULL SHARES:  Garlic, onions, carrots, 3 lbs. Sangria potatoes, 2 lbs. French Fingerling potatoes, spaghetti squash, acorn squash, Lemon ball cucumber, slicing cucumber, tomatoes, green pepper, jalapeno, tomatillos.

PART SHARES:  Garlic onions, carrots, 2 lbs. Sangria potatoes, spaghetti squash, golden Hubbard squash, Lemon Ball and slicing cucumbers, tomatoes, jalapeno or Hungarian Hot pepper, Swiss chard.

SINGLE SHARES:  Garlic, onions, carrots, 2 lbs. Sangria potatoes, spaghetti squash, Buttercup  squash, Lemon Ball and slicing cucumbers, tomatoes, jalapeno or Hungarian Hot peppers.