CSA News from Windflower Farm – Week 17

CSA News from Windflower Farm

Delivery #17, Week of September 24th, 2018

This week’s share. Lettuce, radicchio, Dinosaur kale, cilantro, chiles, tomatoes, sweet peppers, leeks, delicata squash, beans, potatoes and carrots. Your sweet potatoes need another week in our greenhouse to sweeten – you’ll see them beginning next week. Nearly 100% of the vegetables in your shares are from our farm, and all are organic, but this week’s carrots are not ours. Our carrot crop was a failure. These carrots are from Brian and Justine Denison’s farm, and are certified organic.

Pete tells me his apples have been slow to develop color, which I gather is the final step in their development prior to harvest. I will not know for another day what Pete will have for your fruit share, but it will likely be something from his late plum crop.

Summer vegetables have begun to disappear with the arrival of fall. You’ll be getting the last of our beans this week or next. You’ve likely already had the last of our summer squashes and cucumbers and corn. Tomatoes are slowing down, and they’ll soon be removed to make greenhouse space for the greens that will fill out winter shares. But there are good things to come. The final six shares of this season will be comprised of sweet potatoes and potatoes, red and yellow onions and leeks, carrots and beets, winter squashes and various greens, including radicchio, endive, lettuce, arugula, kales, chard, koji and a mustard mix. You’ll also get more garlic and some fennel and celeriac.

We are beginning to prepare for cold weather here. We’ll be able to put up wood for the spring heating season, but we are too late for our winter supply. So, we’ve called Bob Bassett, the man who occasionally provides us with wood for the stoves that heat our workshop and cabin. Bob loaded four full cords onto his trailer by himself today and brought them over. He would have come earlier in the week, he said, but he had a fifty acre field of corn that he wanted to chop before the rain came. It’s a big project for anyone, but Bob is just shy of 80. He wears mutton chops and has bright blue eyes. He is someone Robert Frost or Leo Tolstoy might conjure. He’s one of those country gentlemen that I can’t help but admire. He is as happy at his work and in his place in the world as anyone I’ve met. It’s the simple things, he says. He tells me he has a wife who loves him, a nice little workshop off the barn and a view of the Helderbergs and the Berkshires from the high field where he splits his wood. The four cords are now stacked and covered, and it feels good to know we are a little more prepared for the coming cold.

Have a great week, Ted

Author: Central Brooklyn CSA

The Central Brooklyn CSA (CBCSA) is dedicated to working with our partners the New York City Coalition Against Hunger, Windflower Farm, and the Hebron French Speaking SDA Church to continue the work of building a Community Supported Agriculture model that increases access to fresh, local produce for all members of our communities, regardless of income level. Join us as we continue to bring fresh, organic, affordable and nutritious vegetables and fruit to the Bed-Stuy, Crown Heights, and surrounding communities.

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