CSA pick-ups  Your share will be ready this Saturday, October 29. We will see you at the farmstand between 10 and 5! The five remaining Saturday pick-up dates for Fall CSA are: Oct 29, Nov 5 & 19, and Dec 3 & 17. The next two are in a row, while the last three have two weeks between each pickup. If you have any questions, please .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)!

What a great season  This coming Sunday, October 30, is the last day the farmstand will be open for the season. We are very grateful to the surrounding community for helping to make this a busy, successful, and educational year on the farm. A special thanks to our ever-loyal hard working volunteers who work for food and fun. We could never be so cool without you.

Winter dates  Mark your calendars to note our special Holiday Saturdays, November 19 and December 17, when we’ll open the farmstand for the day. Look for us at the Lebanon and Norwich winter markets in the coming months!

Your farm share this week

A view from the farm

Students harvested carrots from the field to take back to their school cafeteria.

Field notes  This week we are planting garlic. We finished the bean harvest (eight varieties!), some of which are available now in the farmstand. Still to come are the sunflowers which are drying down in the field. We’ll harvest them soon and press them in to high-quality, cold-pressed, organic sunflower oil!

Super students!  We had more than twenty school groups visit us in the past two weeks to pick pumpkins. Hundreds from The Newton School, Thetford Elementary School, Marion Cross, and Hanover Street Schools were especially lucky students and were able to engage in farm-based educational activities with Cat. They pressed cider, threshed, winnowed and sorted beans, harvested carrots, searched for insects and seeds, and heightened their senses in the Sensory Herb Garden — in addition to getting a wagon ride to the pumpkin patch and taking home their perfect pumpkin.

In the farmstand  Have you ever tried a Russian Banana potato? How about freshly harvested beans? You will find them in the in the farmstand along with a variety of other tubers, roots, winter squashes, stalks of brussels sprouts, and both hardy and tender greens.

New from our kitchen  Alison’s Carrot Habanero Sauce is perfect for those who want the taste of habanero without the intense heat. It’s spicy, but more like the heat of a medium salsa than the wicked-hot typical of habaneros. The carrots lend a nice sweetness as well as gorgeous color. It is definitely a new farm favorite. We still have some jars of pickles, jam, marinara sauce, tomato paste, and chile jam.

Abundance  We had a bumper crop of carrots and potatoes this year and we want to extend the abundance to you! While they last, we have carrots and potatoes at these great prices: Carrots: top quality, 60 lb for $75, and seconds, 60 lb for $30. The seconds taste great but have a more interesting appearance. They make excellent juice! Potatoes: Large and medium, 50 lb for $62.50.

Squash tips Need some advice on how to handle those large and thick skinned gourds we call winter squash? We have been building an archive of recipes and tips on our website, including how to store winter squash and how to save their seeds for next year.

Comfort food  Cat thinks of winter squash as comfort food, and butternut squash, or school bell squash as she grew up calling it in southern New England, is her favorite. Baked and whipped with a little butter, milk, maple syrup, salt, and pepper, you’ll find the sweet and nutty flavor really shines. Butternut squash is featured in several new recipes on our website, although you can substitute whatever kind of squash you might have on hand. This Butternut Bisque is spectacular. Suggestion: made even better with accompanied by some of John’s Trukenbrod bread

See you at the farm!

Cedar Circle Farm & Education Center Crew