Distribution #12, week of August 14th

The News from Windflower Farm

What you’ll get this week

• Tomatoes
• Peppers
• Eggplants
• Onions
• Sweet Corn
• Parsley
• Radicchio
• Kale or collards from Denison Farm
• Your fruit share will be Pennsylvania peaches complements of Yonder Farm.

Maple and grain shares will be delivered this week – don’t forget to check in!

News from the farm

A lush green is everywhere. Rose colored Joe Pye weed, purple loosestrife, boneset and cattails are in the wet places along roadways, and goldenrod is blooming. Cooler weather has set in with the arrival of August, perhaps a little prematurely. Rainfall is still regular, but it’s not unwelcome. August is typically a period of transition here: the salad greens that had become buggy or bitter in July are gone, and a new generation is coming along. Tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants are at their peak, as is sweet corn, but we are focusing our farm work on later crops. We weeded our sweet potatoes for the last time. We are cultivating fall broccoli, kale, and cabbage, and beginning to harvest potatoes. And we are sowing our last successions of beets, summer squashes, radishes, turnips, lettuce, and spinach. After this week, there will be just ten weeks left in  the CSA season.

I travelled through the lake country of northwestern Connecticut last weekend to pick up a potato harvester. Our old harvester was a large, unruly contraption; the only thing reliable about it was that it would break down regularly. It consisted of hundreds of chains, dozens of sprockets and a bent pto shaft, and had to be tended by half a dozen people to make it function properly. Weeds, rocks, and potatoes would jam in any of a dozen nooks or crannies, causing the tractor to kick and sputter, eventually grinding the whole operation to a stop. The new machine, an Italian import, is made of far fewer parts. The Italians farm on stony soils, like ours, and have developed tools able to withstand harsh treatment. It doesn’t have a single chain. If the old machine moved along the field like a loud, angry mob, this new one sashays, moving down the potato bedin a rocking motion, a harvest dance, a fine piece of machinery. Perhaps Nate will post a video on Instagram. In the meantime, he’s posted three short farm pieces just this week.

Take care, Ted