Good bye! Stay warm!

This is the final week of our regular CSA season.
Weekly and purple EOW members, go get your last box!

We would like to thank each of you for joining our farm this year.  We appreciate your support and encouragement.  We hope you enjoyed the produce and the experience.  From our perspective, it was an excellent growing season.  Most crops thrived in the mild weather.  The broccoli, cauliflower and Romanesco were more productive than we have ever seen.  Tell us in the annual survey if you wanted that much broccoli, cauliflower and Romanesco. Really, we’d love to know.

This was our finest work crew ever. Longterm employees took new responsibilities, freeing Steve to concentrate on his own work. Several longterm Tipi people are moving on to new adventures in agriculture. We will miss Michael who is moving back to Missouri to start his own farm after working for us for three years.  It’s hard to imagine life without Clint, who is leaving after six seasons to learn more about seed production. We already miss David and Bri who are working in the organic certification industry in California. David worked for us for seven years, starting as a high school student.  A few years with us, and he chose the agronomy program at UW/Madison for his college degree.  It’s sad when people leave after working for us for many years, but we are thrilled when they stay in agriculture.  We are seeding the world with new farmers, and that is a wonderful, satisfying thing.  Have a great winter.  Beth and Steve

Final Details.

– Please make sure that everyone who participates in your CSA share knows the CSA has finished.
– Please return all empty CSA boxes this week. It’s best to unpack your box this week, and leave it behind.  It’s OK to leave empty boxes at your site during the next two weeks.  Just prop them up outside the garage if the door is closed.
– Our Local Thyme subscription is good for an entire year, so you have access to their website and recipes until spring. Use it this winter.  Contact me if you still want to register for their website.  It’s not too late.
– Storage share members, please read our 11/5/14 email about your upcoming delivery.
– Look for our produce through the winter at Willy Street Coop, Outpost Natural Foods, Basics Coop (Janesville), Health Hut (Brookfield), and at Whole Foods (Madison store).  We have a big supply of carrots, cabbage, leeks, onions, beets, celeriac, parsnips, turnips, rutabagas and winter radishes to wash and sell through the winter.

2014 survey and 2015 CSA registration.

– Watch for an email from us in the next few days, once we have our survey ready.  We are eager to hear your thoughts on this season.
– We plan to open 2015 CSA registrations within a week.  There will be an opportunity to register early at discounted rate.

Farm news: Winter descends.

We do not appreciate the sudden cold weather. We hoped for a few more weeks to wrap up our harvests and clean up the farm before winter. Oh well, the weather is not in our control. Next spring will be busy because our fall field work is unfinished. We hurried to bring in our final crops this week. Last carrots came in from the fields on Saturday, last greens on Monday, last Brussels sprouts on Tuesday, last leeks came in today.  Our crew hustled this week.

Simone and Steve harvest the final row of carrots.  That was a relief.  It was still warm on Saturday.

Leek harvest today was cold and rushed.  Our crew usually trims the leek tops and roots at harvest.  Not today; they just pulled them in as quickly as possible.  Anything still in the field could be ruined by tomorrow morning.  From left, Andy, Simone, Jon, Michael (on tractor in center), Steve (on tractor in background), Joel, Jory and Billy gather leeks.  Steve is undercutting the leeks to pop them out of the ground.

We did our leek and Brussels sprouts prep inside this week.  It’s almost impossible to work on these vegetables outdoors at temperatures below freezing. From left, Tristan, Jory, Bee, Simone and Michael pluck Brussels sprouts from stalks.  In the back, Bonnie and Kerry weigh potatoes behind stacks of sweet potatoes and squash washed and ready for this week.  Everyone looks serious but that’s only because I had my camera out.  Group jobs like this are social and fun.

Your leeks this week need light washing.  Our outdoor water systems are shut down, and it was too crowded indoors to spray water about.

Remember the used semi that we bought for extra storage?  We filled the trailer plus all our normal coolers.  Steve is satisfied.  Please buy our carrots this winter; we can’t eat that much carrot soup.

Veggie list and veggie notes (Nov. 13/14, week #26, purple EOW)

Sweet potatoes, about 2 lb
Red potatoes, 3.5 lb
Brussels sprouts, 0.85 lb
Butternut squash, 1
Leeks, 1.5 to 2 lb
Beets, 2 lb
Parsnips, 1.5 lb
Lacinato kale, 1 modest bunch
A small pepper or two

We will have the next box ready for you … next spring!

Peppers –  These are mostly small Orano peppers.  Eat soon; they will not store for long.
Lacinato kale – Bunches are modest size.  This kale is not perfect, as expected by this time of year.
Brussels sprouts –  The sprouts are nice this year, but it has not been a very productive year for Brussels sprouts.
Leeks – As I mentioned above, you will need to wash your leeks.