I must say, I am excited to see the change of the season upon us and feel the crisp, cool air in the mornings.  It seems so recent, writing about how as soon as I begin to tire of lettuce, spring is over and the fruits of summer begin.  Now, I am having similar feelings for tomatoes... and guess what?  They are about done for the season, and fall greens are flourishing in the cooler air.  What a gift change is!  I love this about a CSA, it really connects you with the rhythm of the changing seasons.  It offers the opportunity to taste the freshness of local food and receive the healing benefits of eating in harmony with the season. 

To highlight the welcome change, this weeks share will include the return of more greens, sweet potatoes and winter squash!  I love autumn.  Warm soup and a pumpkin muffin is my favorite meal and even though it isn't quite time for that yet, I can already smell the aroma.  Jesse and Andy are in the field today, harvesting winter squash to begin curing for your fall shares.  We have several varieties in the field.  This weeks' share will include delicata squash.   The delicata tend not to store as long as the pumpkins, spaghetti squash and butternuts (especially), which will keep around for weeks or months if stored properly, so they will be first on the menu.


The Greens are looking lush and seem to enjoy the return of the cool air.  They seem to perk up a bit and deepen in nourishing shades of green and red.  We intend to include a bunch of both collard greens and swiss chard in this weeks' share.  A bed of young lettuce has returned as well.  The bed didn't germinate as fully as it did in the spring, when we were sending huge bags of lettuce every week.  For this weeks' share, a nice small bag of lettuce is on the way.  Earlier this week , we began to thoroughly weed and reseed the beds to see if we can have a more abundant lettuce harvest in the coming weeks.  The bright side is that cooking greens are much more abundant this fall, than they were in the spring.  Seems like there is wisdom in this; more lettuce in the spring, more cooking greens in the fall!  We are grateful for the harvest we have to share this week.
 

The first sweet potatoes are being dug this week too!  As we uncover this buried treasure, we'll fill you in on the total harvest, but from the looks of the first shovel full, there will plenty of those to share throughout the season.  Let me remind myself, however of the lesson that I have been so generously reminded of this year... don't count your chickens before they have hatched.  Probably shouldn't count your sweet potatoes before they are dug either.  Maybe someone underground has been dining on them already, but let's hope not!    

On that note, we hope for another great sweet pea harvest.  The plants are gorgeous, beautiful, healthy and they make so happy when I walk by.  We tried a new trellising technique that seems to be good support for the vines and provide easy picking.  I will let you know when I begin to see fruit!