Farm Notes, CSA week 17

September 25 & 26, Week 17

We hope everyone has been enjoying the fresh vegetables every week. We sure have! We love all the flavors and textures of summertime. We are now moving into the fall crops, they are best roasted in a warm oven. They help take the chill out of the air in our homes and put a warm feeling in our bellies.

We spent this week digging potatoes. Lots and lots of potatoes! We planted 60 rows of 25 different varieties, adding up to about an acre. Chris dug the first eight rows by hand (and pitchfork) and last week we obtained a hand-me-down tractor from my dad that we were able to hook up a digging attachment to, which has made the job far easier. With the help of Chris’s parents and Grandmother, we harvested 34 rows on Wednesday and are trying to get the last 16 harvested this morning and tomorrow before it starts raining. While it is tiring work, we have a lot of fun doing it…we liken it to digging for gold. The soil opens up and you find all these wonderful buried treasures you would never have guessed were there on the surface. And the varieties! Fingerlings, reds, purples, whites, yellows – smooth skins and russeted – all different flesh colors, from stark white to pink and blue blushed to creamy yellows. We hope that everyone will be as excited as we are to try them all!