We love this time of year  Welcome Fall CSA members! Your first share will be ready this coming Saturday, October 22. Come get your delicious veggies at the farmstand any time from 10 to 5.

Six Saturdays  The six Saturday pick-up dates for your Fall CSA farm share are: October 22 & 29, November 5 & 19, and December 3 & 17. It’s a little tricky: the first three are in a row . . . and the last three have two weeks between each pickup. .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) if you have any questions.

Pumpkin Festival Report  On Sunday, October 9, we welcomed a record 1,800 people to celebrate organic agriculture with us at our 9th Annual Pumpkin Festival. Perfect autumn weather drew people from all over the Upper Valley, as well as visitors to our area looking for a pumpkin and a farm harvest experience. We are delighted to say that even with our record-setting attendance that day, we still managed to keep our trash collection to 2.5 bags for the whole festival! A raffle featuring gifts from the farm raised over $500 for Evening Song Farm in Cuttingsville who suffered severe flood damage during Hurricane Irene. And a big thanks to our more than fifty volunteers who helped to make this event possible!

Your farm share this week

A view from the farm

Our skilled crew has been carefully sorting and grading potatoes for weeks now.

Field notes  As we harvest the last of our crops from the field, we also see the promise of fertility rising in our healthy cover crops of rye, oats, triticale, field peas, and cow peas. These cover crops act as a blanket for our precious soil and food for all of the soil life we so carefully nurture.

New at the farmstand  We have a bounty of roots and tubers in every color, winter squash, brussels sprouts, cauliflower, celery, cabbage, chard, and other hardy greens as well as tender spinach, salad mix, endive, radicchio, and arugula. We have not had a freeze here yet, so we even still have tomatoes!

For your pantry from our kitchen  The farm kitchen has preserved ketchup, tomato chile jam, roasted tomato paste, crushed tomatoes, spiced apple butter, and a variety of pickles in shelf-stable jars. Our own stone-ground wheat flour is available in 3 lb bags. In the coolers you’ll find fridge pickles and Alison’s delicious caramel sauce made with Strafford Organic Creamery cream, a big hit at our 9th Annual Pumpkin Festival.

Our abundance  We had a bumper crop of carrots and potatoes this year and we want to share the abundance with you. While they last, we have carrots and potatoes at great prices. Carrots:top quality are 60 lb for $75 and seconds are 60 lb for $30. The seconds taste just as great but have an odd shape to them. Seconds make excellent juice, soup, bread, or cake! Potatoes:Grade A, large, and Grade B, small, are both 50 lb for $62.50.

Time to plant the garlic!  As soon as the evenings begin to chill, garlic can be planted. We like to wait until late October to plant ours. The garlic we have for sale in the farmstand is good for planting too. If you are buying for planting, choose bulbs with the largest cloves. Cat plants her garlic like this.

Warm and earthy  This soup is a favorite of Cat’s. She likes to warm it on the wood stove all day to deepen its flavor. Butternut Squash and Parsnip Bisque with Spiced Pumpkin Seeds. To go totally from scratch, make your own stock and seed garnish.

See you at the farm!

Cedar Circle Farm & Education Center Crew