Kayla with two truckloads of pie pumpkins from the field! These aren’t even all of them!
This Week’s Share:
Pie Pumpkins
Kale or Collards
Lettuce Heads
Radishes or Hakurei Turnips
Mixed Salad Greens
Baby Bok Choi or Napa Cabbage
Sweet Peppers or Shishitos or Poblanos or Tomatoes
A pie pumpkin is not the same as a large orange pumpkin for carving! These are sweeter, with denser orange flesh and more flavor! Roasting them in the oven and pureeing them to use for a pie is really easy, and you can freeze the puree to use later in the winter if you’re not ready to make a pie just yet. Check the link above for step by step instructions, followed by multiple recipes at the end for other pumpkin desserts like pumpkin bars and pumpkin spice cake.
Field Notes:
Elizabeth used our plastic bed lifter to dig the first five beds of sweet potatoes and they are beauties! Fun fact: sweet potatoes right out of the ground do not taste good! Unlike regular potatoes, which can be eaten directly after harvest, sweet potatoes must go through a curing stage to develop their sugars. They need to spend at least 7 days, or longer, in an 85 degree environment to properly transform their starches into delicious sugars, and to toughen the skin so they can store for months. We will continue squirreling them away into their sauna for now, so they can have ideal flavor and quality when they come to you!
What’s on U-Pick?
Sweet Peppers, Poblanos, and Shishitos are now on U-Pick!
Red signs in the field directly beside the 3 high tunnels show you where the peppers are. Sweet peppers are best when fully ripe (all red, orange, or yellow, with no green spots left). Shishitos can be picked either green or red, and poblanos can be green or brown; all ripeness levels for them are good to eat. Enjoy!
In field “F”, through the gate, below the primary parking lot:
Sunflowers and zinnias are still blooming! Get them before they’re gone!
In field “G” behind the pizza oven/parking lot:
Still lots of Holy basil (for tea), parsley, and dill!
Hot chili peppers: jalapenos, lemon jalapenos, buena mulata (purple) and red flame cayenne, sugar rush peach, fruity habaneros, red and green serranoes, and a few sweet red pimento peppers.
Lots of zinnias and gomphrena still for your bouquets!
In the raised brick beds, also known as the Cleeland Garden:
These are still going strong so help yourself to a few stems of herbs and flowers:
Marigolds
Mint
Oregano
Parsley
Greek Basil
Sorrel
Thyme, Sage, and Lemon Balm (to allow for healthy growback for these plants, pick the largest leaves from the outside, do not cut from the stem of the plant!)
Reminder that U-picking hours are Monday-Saturday, 8am-6pm. Please do not come to the farm on Sundays, as we do not have staff on site who can be available in case of an emergency. If the main gates are closed when you arrive you can follow the paved road to the right, and then follow the curve of the road back to the left. This will take you in a loop around the main deer-fenced area and up to the wash station/parking lot.
Our stock of beef and lamb is low but will be replenished soon! All cuts of our grass-finished, dry-aged beef will be back in the store by early November. Lamb cuts will be back from the butcher in mid-December and can be purchased during our Winter CSA pick-ups on Saturdays, or ordered online ahead of time. In the meantime, enjoy the sale on ground beef- $10 per pound, plus save 5% when you buy 5 pounds, or save 10% when you buy 10 pounds.