Wow - it's hard to believe that it's been four weeks since my last posting! My apologies. It's been a blur of harvesting around here, made even more hectic by the fact that our summer students have returned to school, leaving us a little short-handed on harvest days. Actually, the harvest has now stretched out to include pretty much the whole week - crops like tomatoes and squash don't really lose much in terms of quality and freshness over a day or two, so for the market, we harvest these crops on Thursday and leave the tender crops like lettuce and other greens for Friday morning. They get cut in the cool of the morning (and mornings lately have definitely been cooler!), rinsed, and refrigerated immediately, so they arrive at the market in the best possible condition. 

As the title suggests, our market offerings are starting to come full circle now that our fall plantings are ready to harvest. We've got fresh plantings of arugula, mild spring mix, baby lettuce, beta mix, and baby spinach ready to cut - they really enjoy the cooler days and nights of late summer. Peas will be making there return to market this week, too: snow peas are ready this week, with shell and snap peas to follow over the next couple of weeks. 

I had the first taste of our last planting of beans today, too, and they are superb. We'll have lots of green, yellow, purple, and dragon tongue beans  from now until frost strikes. 

Tomatoes, of course, are coming out of the field by the crate full. Our big red and orange beefsteak tomatoes make excellent slicers; the red and yellow paste tomatoes are great in sauces; and there's a motley crew of unusually shaped and coloured heirloom tomatoes guaranteed to provoke conversation as well as your taste buds. Cherry and grape tomatoes are in abundance, too. If you like to preserve tomatoes for winter enjoyment, please contact us about bulk orders - we offer a discount on tomatoes that are beautiful and tasty on the inside, but a little blemished on the outside. 

For the more adventurous, check out our sunberries, ground cherries, and tomatilloes.

Zucchini, patipan squash, and cucumbers  all start to slow down at this time of year, although with our staggered planting schedule, we've still got a really nice supply of these items: the baby zucchini in particular have been a big hit at the market this year, and once people try our lemon cucumbers, they're usually back for more.

We're just starting to harvest one of the farm's biggest crops: winter squash. The dark green acorn squash and the orange, white, and green striped "Celebration" squash have been the first to ripen. I suspect that I'll find some spaghetti squash in the field tomorrow, and the other half dozen or so varieties will be along shortly. 

For all the details, and to avoid missing out on anything, check out our on-line store!

Here's hoping that everyone has had a great summer and that the transition back to school and work has gone smoothly. Hope to see you at the market soon!