17 September 2009

Eggplants, Garlic, Melon, Mustard greens, Onions, Peppers, Hot pepper, Potatoes, Spinach, Squash, Tomatoes

Here are some things you might see if you come to the farm open house on the 27^th: a barn full of onions (we dry them in the hay mow), donkeys (the semi-feral Franklin and Eleanor), sunflowers (pick your own), beds of broccoli (we have three plantings out in the field for fall harvest), pheasants (six of them keep turning up around the farm), deer (a lot more than six of them turn up around the farm), potatoes (if the weather is nice we will harvest some), snails (see note about deer above), hot peppers (you can learn how to make hot sauce with them), frogs (we have three ponds full of them), trees (you can go for a walk in our woods), a hyperactive puppy (we hope he calms down before he outweighs us), celery root (it will turn up in your bag in October—or in a deer, see note above), migrating geese (though I cannot help noticing that they are headed south only about a quarter of the time), the famous eggplant patch (also, perhaps, known to some of you as the infamous eggplant patch), field houses full of fall crops (we are filling them up so we can keep picking right greens right to the end of the season), late blight (though this dry weather seems to have slowed it down; hence the tomatoes in the share), late carrots (let’s hope the deer develop a preference for weeds), pies (including, perhaps, your own triumphing over all the others in the contest), blue herons (three ponds full of frogs are an irresistible attraction for blue herons), red efts (Mike found one hanging out under a husk cherry plant the other day), Mike (the farm’s official red eft spotter), husk cherries (not just tasty, but also a great red eft habitat), mold board plows (just back from the repair shop), the brush cutter (just back from the repair shop), a Kubota tractor (just back from the repair shop), a farmer (back from the back repair shop), leeks (in the field across the road), leaks (in the drip tape), the muscovy duck, Terry (short for terrine), the chickens (soon to be in a terrine if they go after the tomatoes one more time), other CSA members (your pie contest competition), Sam and Will (members of the pie judging panel), dinner (I guess we should not just eat pie so there’s a potluck dinner before the pie contest; we supply drinks, plates, utensils), stars (sorry to raise your hopes, but no celebrities, just an amazing starlit night sky), your breath (it’s starting to get cold; we’re putting rows covers out again), orb weavers (big yellow spiders that make webs with a lightning bolt pattern), brussels sprouts (we might even get a crop this year), Jan (who would eat all the kohlrabi if we let her), kohlrabi (if Jan hasn’t finished it off), Mickey Boy, the large pig (who doesn’t like kohlrabi, but will eat all the squishy tomatoes and melons we care to give him), Adrienne (who is less excited than Jan about kohlrabi, and way less excited than Mickey Boy about squishy tomatoes and melons), winter squash (we have a big pile upstairs in the barn), the seed drill (we will use it to plant oats and winter rye in parts of the field where we have removed crops, such as the winter squash patch), the sunset, the moonrise, the sunrise (all right, probably not the latter, but maybe we’ll stay through the night eating pie and looking at the stars), dirt (we have lots so feel free to take some home with you).

I hope something on that lists appeals to you enough to convince you to come to the farm on the 27^th and see where those bags of produce come from and meet the people who fill them up and at least some of the other people who empty them out. The open house starts at 3, dinner around 6, and the pie contest whenever the judging panel can’t resist trying all the pies.