- Broccoli or cauliflower
- Cabbage
- Celery or fennel
- Radishes
- Parsley, dill or cilantro
- Basil
- Onions
- Cucumbers or zucchini or Tomatillos
- Tomatoes
- Cherry tomatoes
- Peppers
- Hot peppers
- Eggplant
- Kale, chard or collards
- Leeks
- Radicchio or lettuce
The nice weather afforded us the ability to get some weeding done on our overwintering crops. There is still tons left to do but it feels good to get a bit started. The hoop houses remain at a standstill. The wood is purchased, the plastic is here now it is just time to do the work of reframing, placing channels and getting the last bits of plastic off. As we head into the second week of October we may have to wait till our son Jacob comes from Alaska to stay with us for the winter to get the plastic up. There is always the push and pull of so many things to get done between weeding and transplanting and cover cropping the maintenance of the green houses takes a backseat. With nice weather the pressure is lessened and we spend time doing what Has to get done on any given day.
We had a great helping crew on Sunday (September 27th) which made our harvest go so much better. We finished by 11 o’clock giving us time to get the extras together for pick up sites and flower bouquets made. We will see who shows up today.
Many of you took advantage of my advice to sign up early for Thanksgiving and the 2021 season. There is still space left for those of you who are sitting on the fence. We will open to new subscribers come January 1 so make your intentions known. Leave your deposit for 2021 so that you are there is space in the upcoming season. Some of my favorite crops for early spring have decided that they have been stressed sufficiently to bloom now. This includes one of the most beautiful varieties of purple sprouting broccoli. We will give it this week as opposed to April 2021. I feel like I planted the seeds at the normal time which is the end of June and transplanted them in end of July and they have no business producing purple sprouting broccoli at this time of year, but 2020 never ceases to surprise us.
This week has been a roller coaster of events from the nomination of an ultra right wing judge to the Supreme Court, to the revelation of trump’s tax evasion, to the debates that seemed like two school boys battling it out led by Trump who interrupted Biden over 130 times to the culmination of Trump himself coming down with the coronavirus. But rest assured he is working from his hospital suites at the military base in Virginia. They make it sound like a small vacation when in fact he’s received two experimental drugs to try and stave off severe illness. With the election four weeks away one wonders if things can get worse but I know and so do you, 2020 is a year to be a erased from memory.
There was a great piece on The Daily (NPR program, podcast available) about how voting varies from state to state.In some states one can register on election day, but in Oregon voter registration ends soon. October 13th is the final day to register, so if you have any ability to register voters please do so the easiest way is to do it online. If people do not have a state issued ID they can easily download the voter registration form, fill it out and mail it in and you can do that as well. I have a stack of the printed registration forms sitting on my desk at work.
This is the last month of the regular season. The last harvest will be 27 October. Please keep your eyes out for the survey that I will send out in the next few weeks to give us a sense of what worked well for you, what you liked best and how we can improve for next year. I certainly hope that we will be able to resume some of the events that make our farm special in 2021, unfortunately we have no control over how this pandemic will play out. We can continue to be vigilant ourselves and vote the right people into office. There should be no confusion that this pandemic was preventable, that action could’ve been taken to quell the spread of this deadly disease and instead the seriousness of the pandemic was downplayed and mocked by our very highest leader. We are all paying the price for this stupidity. Let’s make a difference now and get him out of office.
I highly recommend getting the cookbook: Six Seasons by Joshua McFadden. It is a book written with a farm share in mind. Every recipe we have tried is delicious and seasonal and generally easy enough to make for a Sunday dinner or weeknight treat. He has three great recipes for radishes including roasted radishes with brown butter, chile and honey and grilled radishes with dates apples and radish tops. He has several for kohlrabi, fennel and rutabaga. As I was trying to include them here I read the copyright information and decided not to. Here is a link to a similar recipe https://www.thekitchn.com/recipe-brown-butter-radishes-242276 time to get excited that I planted so many radishes!
Here are some other recipe for eggplant and peppers: (Thanks Sharon)
Rumainian Eggplant and Pepper Salad
1 large eggplant
2 green peppers
2 red peppers
2 medium onions, chopped fine
1 garlic clove, crushed
¼ cup oil (I recommend EVOO)
2 T white vinegar
2 teaspoons salt
1 T sugar
- Preheat oven to 450., peet the eggplant and the peppers.
- Prick eggplant with a fork and back with the peppers on a cookie sheet in the oven until charred (about 20 minutes). Alternately, they can be rotated over a gas grill until charred on the outside. When cool.
- Chop the eggplant and peppers with onions and garlic. Add the oil, vinegar,salt, and sugar. Adjust seasoning and let marinate at least 1 day. Serve alone or as a dip with crackers. This will last about a week covered in the refrigerator.