Sep 23, 20203 min read

Warm Endings {Week 19 CSA}

It's hard to believe that we only have one more CSA after this week, despite a forecast that would have us believing our tomatoes will last forever!

Every year, the end of our CSA sneaks up on us. This year was no different, although notably more intense as we endeavored to offer a new delivery service amid a crumbling market season. Given the uncertainty of the year and the socially distanced summer, we've appreciated connecting with our CSA members even more.

On the farm, we always take a few weeks (and usually a couple near-frosts) to ease into an eagerness for autumn. Summer is packed with so much motion and juicy sweetness that it can have us swirling like a kid in a carnival, hoping it will never end. But once we give into fall's crisp mornings, and her reminder of our need for a little dormancy too, we pull the rest of her on like a cozy blanket. Perhaps this year especially, we are ready for something slower.

As many of you know, we do still grow in the winter, but our production mostly shrinks to what will fit inside our 3 large high tunnels. This incredibly warm end to peak season is giving our winter crops a nice boost of growth at the start, so we expect much in the way of our cold hardy crops, like salad greens, carrots, spinach, and the like. Normally, our first frost comes within the first couple weeks of September, so you can imagine how happy our melons, zucchini, and flowers are as we approach October in full bloom.

We will continue to offer our delivery service throughout the fall, winter, and spring (with a brief hiatus in November) so you can continue to enjoy fresh nutrition without having to venture far. We avoid offering a CSA in the winter as the risks for crop failure are too great and it's much easier for us to simply come to market (and list on our online store) what we have each week.

If you haven't heard, we are also bringing back the Riverside Farmers Market, beginning on Saturday, October 10th (9am-noon, at the McKinley Arts Center.) It will run every Saturday morning until the end of May and will provide a safe and charming outdoor shopping option for local produce, bread, meats, eggs, and artisanal offerings.

We appreciate your support this season more than words can convey, which we'll dive into more next week. As a rather young CSA (now finishing our 3rd season) we welcome any and all feedback from our members. Please click here for a quick survey about our CSA. You can choose to leave it anonymously or not, and feel free to share any thoughts you may have about your experience. We truly couldn’t have done this season without you, and we can’t thank you enough for supporting our efforts and our farm.

May this first fall harvest delight your recipes this week and...happy fall!

Interestingly, our farm has been completely surrounded by blooms of Grindelia (gumweed) this year. The sticky bulbs of this herb hint at its incredible expectorant qualities, as the resin is a potent remedy for many lung ailments. Quite appropriate, we think, in a year marred by a respiratory pandemic.