The News from Windflower Farm
It’s winter share signup season! Please read below to learn more.
The last grain and maple shares will be sent this week. If you ordered an October grain and/or maple share, please be sure to pick them up.
What’s in the share?
- The last of our sweet peppers
- Lettuce
- Kale mix
- Spinach or swiss chard (choice)
- Sweet potatoes
- A bagful of shallots and chiles
- Pie pumpkin
- Carrots
- Broccoli or cauliflower (choice)
Your fruit share will be one or two of the new apple varieties growing at Yonder Farm, possibly ‘Snapdragon’ or ‘Ludicrisp’.
Coming next week: leeks, potatoes, Rosemary, carrots, Butternut squash, lettuce, purple kale, chiles, ginger and more sweet potatoes.
If you see Don, the man who drives our delivery truck with Daniel on Thursdays, wish him a happy birthday – he turned 75 last week!
What’s new on the farm?
The swirling deep rose and light blues of the Aurora Borealis dominated the night sky here late last week. I am told that the spectacle was the result of interactions between the sun’s solar winds and the earth’s magnetic field. With that, and a significant temperature cool down and two rainy days, the summer farm season seemed to give way to fall over the weekend. Freeze warnings sent us to the field with floating row covers to protect the tender greens and ginger we have yet to harvest. Seasonal deadlines have given some bounce to our step – with just three weeks remaining in the field season, there is much to do. We harvested all the remaining sweet peppers, chiles and eggplants yesterday. Just a few odd beds of leeks, potatoes and carrots remain to be harvested. In the days before, we took down all the tomato vines, producing a compost heap that is now larger than my house. Next, we’ll pick up pepper stakes, bundle the irrigation headers, and roll up the caterpillar tunnel plastic for use next year.
While I composted and shaped an acre or so of field beds for fall Allium plantings (garlic, onions, shallots and an experimental leek variety), Nate chisel plowed and applied compost to the tunnels where we’ll plant winter greens starting later today. On Wednesday, I’ll pick up 2,000 lbs. of rye and hairy vetch seed from friends at The Farm at Miller’s Crossing to sow on any remaining bare ground. In sections of the farm intended for the earliest spring 2025 plantings, we have shaped beds prior to cover cropping. In this way, just a shallow skim tilling will be needed ahead of next year’s earliest transplanting.
A winter share anyone?
Purchasing a winter share is your chance to extend the fruit and vegetable season through the New Year.
What is it? In a nutshell, the winter share consists of a total of three one-bushel boxes, one delivered every fourth Saturday from mid-November through early January (November 16th, December 14th, and January 11th). It contains a big bag of fresh greens (kale, spinach and more), 8-10 lb. of vegetables from our root cellar (including winter squashes, “Irish” and sweet potatoes, onions, carrots, beets, and other storage veggies), 4-6 lb. of delicious apples (and pears if available) from the Borden Farm, and a sweet treat every month (the Borden’s apple cider, Harry’s honey, and Deb’s jam). Optional grain, maple and egg shares are also available. Please follow the link for more details and to sign up.
Click here to learn more: Windflower Farm’s 2024-2025 Winter Share (wufoo.com).
We hope you’ll join us for the winter share season!
Take care, Ted
Central Brooklyn CSA 