CSA pick up Sept 24

It's summer again!  Our farmers are ecstatic.  Fields are drying, and crops are now fit to harvest. Fit means the grain is at the correct moisture to harvest.  Harvest  your grain, beans or lentils when they are too 'tough'  aka moist, and you'll spend a lot of time and energy trying to dry them.  If farmers harvest tough crops, they risk the crop heating up and fermenting rather than drying.  They even risk the crop expanding due to moisture and busting the grain bins open!  These last few weeks of rainy weather had farmers in fits of worry.  Now that the sun is back out, crops are drying and our farmers are GLOWING! It also means that they are so busy harvesting their grains, they are pressed for time to harvest their vegetables.  Not to worry though, the farmers who work with us on the CSA are dedicated to providing you with produce each and every week. This sunshine has brought the melons back, is ripening the squash and one of our producers, Dennis, recently told me "I can't believe that my last planting of lettuce is going to make it!  This is the first year where we will actually harvest all of our plantings!" Our farmers are risk takers.  They have to be in this industry.  They purchase or rent expensive land, purchase expensive seed, and spend money on fuel for a tractor and their time or hired labour to plant successive plantings of things like lettuce.  To have lettuce all season long, Dennis planted lettuce every 10 days in different spots on the farm.  Then each week he harvests a new 'planting' of lettuce.  Dennis knows how many days from seeding it takes to harvest a lettuce crop.  So those last few plantings of lettuce are risks that he takes.  Traditionally the first killing frost of the season in his area is September 17th.  He has to decide whether to plant a lettuce crop that is due to be ready AFTER September 17th.  If he spends the money on seeds, labour, and land, all of that risk may end in a frozen field of lettuce.  Or is may end in an extra harvest or two that financially rewards the risk. This week full shares to receive a minimum of 8 of the following items Potatoes, pink fir apple, organic, heirloom variety Parsnips, organic Pumpkin, sugar pie variety, organic Spaghetti squash, heirloom variety, spray free Cantaloupe, spray free Celery, organic Walla walla onions, organic tomatoes, spray free Lettuce, organic   Half share to contain a minimum of 6 of the following items Pumpkin, organic Spaghetti Squash, spray free, heirloom variety Cantaloupe, spray free Celery, Organic Walla walla onions, organic Tomatoes, spray free Lettuce, organic You don't have to make pie with your pumpkin.  You can slice and roast it up, use the recipe that we have on our blog for acorn squash or butternut squash.  Most orange fleshed squashes, pumpkin included, can be used interchangeably to be roasted, baked, fried and turned into soup.