Week 20 – Fall is here!

Fall is officially here and we are marking it with potatoes!  And of course lots of tomatoes and peppers again.  Here’s this week’s rundown:

potatoes – “Colorado Rose” – With rosy skin and white flesh, red-skinned potatoes have a firm, smooth, moist and creamy texture. The flavor is subtly sweet and well suited for salads, soups and stews because slices and chunks maintain their shape during cooking and mixing. They are also excellent baking potatoes.  You can also mash or roast them.  Our potatoes this year are coming from Sauvie Island Organics, a great local organic farm that runs it’s own CSA and sells wholesale as well.  We decided not to grow most of our own potatoes this year because they benefit from mechanical cultivation and harvesting, but rest assured your membership is still supporting a great operation with excellent farming practices.  This choice has allowed us to dedicate more field space to things like lettuce and salad greens.

kale – “Nash’s Green”

eggplant – last week of these

carrots – We are back to the variety “napoli.”  Some of these are huge right now.

garlic – 2 heads

lettuce – 1 head of red or green

sweet peppers – The same 5 varieties: Jimmy Nardello, Stocky Red Roaster, Gatherer’s Gold, Gypsy Queen, and Liebsapfel.  Best flavor when roasted but great for fresh eating.

hot peppers – red jalapeno

tomatoes – these are slowing down a bit but still a great haul this week.

The summer squash is officially done, and the eggplant is not long behind.  Week by week you will slowly see more changes in the mix of veggies in the share.  Soon, maybe next week, we’ll have our first winter squash of the season.

In other news we are beginning the process of sowing rye, vetch, and clover as winter cover crops to improve soil texture and maintain fertility.  We are mowing and turning in crops that are finished, then scattering the cover crop seed, and then raking or harrowing the seed in.  This weekend looks like it will bring plenty of rain to get the seed up and growing.  I’m excited to see lush fields of green protecting the soil through the winter rains.

Have fun with your veggies this week!  – Farmer Matt.