Field notes  Turning leaves means cool weather crops and storage crops are on the way! Our crew is harvesting fantastic pumpkins, we’ll have plenty for the many school groups who come to visit the farm each fall. While it is not always the case, this year’s CSA has been incredible. May we always remember the good years like this and be grateful for the experience. We are getting ready for a productive fall, and now is the perfect time to join us with a Fall Farm Share.

Our Farm Kitchen  Our kitchen staff, under the leadership of our chef and kitchen manager, Alison Baker, have done an amazing job providing for farm events and preserving the harvest for months to come. Our new kitchen has gotten quite a work out this season and will, we hope, for many many years to come.

New at the farmstand  From the farm kitchen we have our own shelf stable tomato paste, crushed tomatoes, tomato chili jam, and more. In the cooler you’ll find radish kimchee and fridge pickles. Fresh from the fields are celeriac, daikon radish, leeks, young turnips, a variety of winter squash and gorgeous beets.

Your farm share this week

A view from the farm

Our fall crops are flourishing.

Get these waning summery crops while you can  Paste and heirloom tomatoes, sweet peppers, corn, cauliflower, broccoli florets, eggplant, spinach, radishes, and fall raspberries.

Still to come!  Scallions, napa cabbage, cabbage, sweet potatoes, dry beans, parsnips and rutabaga.

Willing Hands, keeping it real  We provide land, crops, and guidance to a group of amazing volunteers who have grown exceptional food in large quantities. These crops are harvested and delivered fresh to families in need by the super hero-like organization Willing Hands. Many thanks to Tom McQuade our star intern for the past year who helped to make this project more successful than ever before.

Improving with age  Hopefully we all improve with age, but it is certainly true for soup! If there is any left after serving Ne Ne’s (Nay Nay) Vegan (or not) Leek and Potato Soup, you will be pleased with the results the next day. Cat’s mother-in-law introduced her to this soup and it is one of the few recipes she follows exactly because it is so tasty!

Try this delicious recipe for Roasted Beet Salad with Red Onion, Poblano and Lime suggested by our pal Christina Joanis.

Pumpkin Festival is coming!  Local puppetry from Ria Blaas, 3 shows 10:30, noon, and 1:30. Two great bands: Jeanne & the Hi-Tops and Rev. Stovepipe! Farm-made fall soups and bread, apple butternut crisp, cider donuts and more. $5 car. Find out more!

Demystifying compost  Cat loves talking about building soil, and that makes this class her favorite one. It’s popular in the valley too, enough so that we organized a second round of This Rots! De-mystfying Compost! Sign up here for our October 15th class. In this class we’ll begin with a tour of our farm compost with Nic Cook, and then practically apply the information to Cat’s demonstration backyard compost system.

Digging in and reflecting back  As we clear out our garden harvests and put our gardens to bed we reflect on what went well and what did not. Our Education Coordinator Cat Buxton highly recommends a little book we sell in the farmstand called Grow Your Own Food. Cat says ” It’s an excellent go-to guide for basic and advanced gardening, backyard composting, nutrition and food storage tips. This book covers nearly everything I teach in my gardening classes at the farm.” And it’s only $7.

Extend the harvest  with our Fall CSA share. Fall Share members can come to the farmstand on Saturday’s from mid-October through December to pick up a share of storage veggies, fall greens and more. Sign up now!