What’s in the share?
Lettuce
Arugula
Salad mix
Garlic
Red onions
Potatoes
Fennel
Peppers
Kale or collards
Bunched beets
Your fruit share will be more of Yonder Farm’s pears and apples.
Last week, we planted nearly all of our winter greens (three kinds of kale, two spinach varieties, tatsoi, Swiss chard and koji), leaving us with just some gaps to fill here and there.
This week, we will plant next year’s garlic and continue the harvest of storage vegetables – the rutabagas, turnips, leeks, beets, carrots, celeriac, fennel, kohlrabi and potatoes that will fill out your final three or four shares and winter boxes. Sweet potatoes, shallots and onions have already been tucked in. Your last shares will be delivered during the week of November 4th. Winter share details are being finalized this week.
The four dates of the season have been established: November 23rd, December 14th, January 11th, and February 8th.
What’s new on the farm?
A group of graduate students in the Products of Design program at SVA visited the farm over the weekend. This is the fourth year that they’ve come as part of their semester on sustainability. We toured the farm, harvested some crops, looked at the dozens of tools and systems we utilize here, enjoyed the view from our high ground, and then wrapped up by standing around our newest homemade electric tractor. I told them that I was thinking about making a few over the winter to sell to my fellow vegetable farmers, and that I know it needs a little finish work – perhaps a cup holder and a USB port and a sun canopy for the operator. I gave them paper and colored pencils and asked them to do what they could to give it some bling, to turn it’s bare chassis into the Ferrari or Maserati of tractors, I said, kidding. “Or perhaps the Tesla,” said one. “You mean you want us to pimp your ride?” asked another. I guess I did. “It needs more than bling,” suggested a third, “it needs body, and curves.” And they proceeded to draw round shapes over my angular little tractor. I collected half a dozen sketches by the time the students broke off into little groups for selfies and frisbee on the back lawn.
Only three or four of the 20 students had ever been to a farm. Most were from the megacities of the world. A woman from Mexico City said she might join us for the summer season next year. She was smitten with the tiny house that Nate and Jan are building and thought she’d like to try tiny living for a couple of months. I can picture her living in the tiny house on the hill above MaryJane’s pond, a totally pimped out (and shapely) electric tractor plugged into her solar panels, decompressing from academic life, enjoying the fresh air of country living.
Have a great week, Ted
Central Brooklyn CSA 