Full Share:  Huckleberry Gold Potatoes, Baby Kale mix, Carrots, Sun Gold Tomatoes, Slicing Tomatoes, Cucumbers, Poblano Peppers, Haricot Vert French Beans, Onions, and Garlic

Partial Share:  Salad Mix, Sungold Tomatoes, Eggplant, Huckleberry Gold Potatoes, Sweet Onion, Slicing Tomato, and Garlic

Hello CSA members!

You might recall when you first signed up for your CSA this season, you had to read an agreement laying out the terms.  As part of that contract, we, as your farmers, made the pledge that we do would our best to grow you high quality vegetables.  But that’s a pretty vague promise, and one person’s best is certainly not the same as another person’s best.  Yet you signed up anyway, and we appreciate that.  So at 4:30 am Sunday morning, the fog drifting down the Stillwater River and the ice beginning to form on the windshield of my truck, I thought about this as I waded into the river in my sweatpants, roll of duct tape in hand, to make a desperate attempt to patch a hole in the intake pipe of our irrigation pump so that I could turn on the water and prevent frost damage to the plants.   Was that my best?  I don’t know.  But, I think it certainly gets us closer to an answer.   And I’m happy to report that the repair was successful.

In a way, I’m kind of glad the first frost of the season (September 2nd, in case you’re keeping track) has come and gone, as the weeks leading up to it are always so full of anticipation and uncertainty.  Now, we got it out of the way, and it’s back to business.   On week #12, I cautioned the crew not to start thinking about the light at the end of the tunnel, because while we were over the half-way point, we still had a long way to go.  And that Week #17 was the week they could start thinking about the end.  And here we are.   For those of you who are uncertain, or have inquired, the CSA goes for 20 weeks, and will be ending the last week of this month (September 24th-29th).

Another important date to remember is October 4th, which is the date of this year’s “Stock Up Sale” at the farm. This has become quite a popular event with lots of produce available from the farm, beautiful red bell peppers and roasted chilis from our friends at Harlequin Farm, an our food truck will be operating for it’s only time this season with a fabulous “guest” chef we are very excited about.  As well as other grain/pumpkin/food vendors TBD.  More details to come, but mark your calendars!

Back to your CSA.  The frost this weekend typically signals that there will more frosts to come in the near future.  And these frosts will all begin to chip away at the warm season crops, shifting our offerings  back to cool weather greens, hearty roots, and storage crops.  But we’re not there yet, so this week we’re still emphasizing the warm-season crops like tomatoes, cucumbers (full), eggplant or Shishito peppers(partials).  Speaking of those Shishitos, it’s really cool how popular they have become with our customers just within the past couple seasons.  So much so, that we are starting up a fan club called the Shishit-Heads 🙂  I’m also excited that we finally found time to dig some of the popular purple skin/yellow flesh Huckleberry Gold potatoes, which will be in your shares.  Sorry, no fan club for them yet.   And the baby Kale mix looks super tender and should make a great salad.

For those of you who took advantage of our special offerings this week (and I apologize if you missed out due to short notice), please bring payment with you at the time of your CSA pickup, and we will have over your orders alongside your CSA shares.

Now that the days are cooler, and the kids are back in school, I feel like oven use is on the rise.  And there is no better use of your oven than making oven fries with the Huckleberry Gold potatoes.  Oil a sheet pan, slice the potatoes into uniform thin slices, and cook them at 400 degrees, flipping them once, until they are at your desired crispness.   Probably the best potato for this use.

I hope you are enjoying this amazingly pleasant, smoke-free weather, and we’ll see you at CSA pickup!

Todd and the Two Bear Farm crew