Week 11 CSA!!
The other day I was driving from Williston and I decided to take the longer, nicer way home, Route 15. I find that during the season I get a mini-vacation while driving in the truck so I will often take the long way, drive slower, (although where I am from this is frowned upon because “I’m not on your vacation”), and take in the sites. So much of what we do is confined to such a small area, and because of the time investment during the season, it is easy to get a case of “near-sightedness.” It is often challenging to keep up with the news, with my family, with the town and the world. But as we enter into the Labor Day weekend and September, my eyes have begun to adjust to see things a little further away from the end of my nose. We are looking towards the various projects we would like to turn our attention to, or cleaning up the place before all the white stuff comes in (hopefully a little later than the first week of November this year), or hell, having some friggin’ fun on our bikes, at a meal, seeing friends etc. The weather this summer has just been phenomenal, hot, but really nice - lots of sunshine, good frequency of rain in the later part of the summer, cool nights for sleeping recently, but as I drove back on 15 through Jeffersonville and I stopped for some snacks, my eyes adjusted to the mountains and the natural world around me. All along that area the maple leaves are taking on that soft change before its compete radical transformation - its a slight, sort of dull shift, a lessening of green, but it was the first time I noticed it in such a broad way.
As residents of this beautiful state, we are fortunate to experience this beautiful phenomenon and I feel it defines not only our Vermont identity, but our annual time-clock as we move through the year. It marks the gateway to winter, a last hoorah for the living before the long period of death and quiet, a funeral for photosynthesis. Living in the north, we experience such drastic transitions throughout the year, from severe cold to mild and wet, to hot and dry, to cool and hot at the same time, I believe this is what keeps living here so interesting and lively. It reminds us to make the most of the different seasons, to enjoy what we have in front of us because in a moment it may change, it keeps us on our toes and equipped for any possibility. And so as I made my way home, I thought about the transition that this part of the annual season means. A lot of you are probably in “back to school” mode which is such a stark transition from summer, maybe some of you are trying to soak up summer while we still have these amazing sunny days, maybe you are moving on to projects of your own. We are winding down the growing here and winding up the infrastructure and that feels really satisfying. September and October are without a doubt my favorite time of the year, we slow down a bit, breathe easier, and start to both reflect and shift to long-sightedness - looking farther, way farther out from the action of our hands. And as much as I love the summer sun, I also like digging out my wool vests for the cool morning harvests.
Speaking of, lets talk about the share!!!!!!
This week we have:
a bag of lettuce mix for all your salad needs
a bunch of rainbow carrots, a little smaller than the chantanay carrots we’ve been seeing but colorful and bright
a quart of new potatoes - we just love potatoes here and we grew a lot of the, this year. The nice thing about potatoes is that you don’t have to get to them in a week. You can stockpile potatoes and use them when you want! There will definitely be more on the way. We’ve only seen three of the 10 or so varieties that we are growing.
Heirloom tomatoes - the flavor is unbelievable. Last night Genica made a tomatoes sandwich for us for a late dinner. Elmore Mountain Vermont Redeemer bread, thick slices of tomato, mayo, salt, pepper, and some greens. So good.
two cukes, maybe the last of the season as I transition the cucumber greenhouse.
a bunch of Easter egg radish - these have been so good this year, tender, kind of spicy, and colorful. Don’t let the odd shapes of some of them fool you, they are big and maybe ugly but really good inside.’
a couple green bell peppers - they are slow this year but coming on strong!
a few sweet onions - my favorite for fresh eating. We had some early season issues so they are fun-size rather than monsters.
jalapeño peppers - I didn’t want to overload anyone in case people don’t like spicy. we have been adding it to stir fries, you can slice it thin and add some to a guacamole dish or dip for the weekend. I eat them raw in the field as a test - product test, and to see what I can handle. They are meaty and deliciously hot.
Oh yeah, and here are some photos from the visit from the Agency last week. They took some drone footage of the farm. Very cool!!
The Main fields
birds eye
the lower field and all the mixed greens production
View of the other side of the road that we tapped into this year. The red house was subdivided from our property in 2004.