This is the 2nd last week of CSA!

We have 4 more Saturday farmers’ markets to attend and 6 more Thursday markets (not that we’re counting).

That will take us to the end of October – and the end of our season!

Until then we still have vegetables to seed & plant, weed & harvest. Here’s hoping for a lovely & mild fall so the crops can continue growing & thriving for another month!

We have stopped picking blackberries – the quality of the few that remain on the canes is poor & not worth harvesting. We keep saying that the tomatoes are finished too, but the warm weather of the past week has spurred some new growth & ripening. But the big story is the eggplant! The plants, which have been failing for some time are perking up, sending out new blossoms and ripening more fruit – not a lot, but we’ll take it!

We are getting inquiries at market concerning pawpaws. Our little pawpaw patch is thriving (all 9 trees!) and some have a good crop. They appear to be several weeks away from harvest yet.

I was optimistic that this would be the year we got to harvest some nuts from our heartnut & walnut trees. But as usual the squirrels have helped themselves to the the crop, leaving us nothing! There are some hazelnuts though. If all goes well we may even have a few to sell at market later.

What’s in the box?

Squash, salad mix, bok choy, arugula, sweet peppers, onions & garlic.

The CSA box this week is quite similar to last week’s …

• However, this week’s winter squash selections could be different than the squash you had last week. We continue to pick as we have time (it’s a big job) so there may be other varieties to choose from. Of the 28 kinds we grew, many are abundant but there are several varieties that seem to have just disappeared!

• The other difference this week is the salad mix. Instead of the usual lettuce mix that we have offered for much of the season (we ran out of seed), we have a new blend that includes some other greens along with the various lettuces.
• The warm weather of late has been a real bonus for the sweet peppers. There is an abundance of fruit remaining on the plants and it is ripening nicely!

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With the end of the season in sight, some of us on the farm are already in a resting mode …

… while other are focused on play …

… but the dedicated are still hard at work!