Jen and Derek's Farm Fresh Veggies: 15th CSA Week

Did you see that moon tonight??? Incredible. So, its the Thanksgiving harvest this week!!! I hope your all going to be able to celebrate with your families and lots of farm fresh veggies!!! We are planning on having supper with my family Sunday night at my brother's house so that should be nice. Thanksgiving isn't something we've celebrated much in the past as our family was always digging potatoes and no one had the energy or the time to cook a big supper and have people over but this year seems to be different. Lots to be thankful for this year. New farm, closer to family, super productive land, healthy kids, working tractors, tomatoes, etc etc etc.

This weeks large share has hardy mix (mix of tatsoi, arugula, lettuce mix, purple mustard and red kale), broccoli, brussel sprouts, carrots, parsnips, peppers, tomatoes, pie pumpkin & a cabbage (green or purple). The grab bins had leeks, beets, a few cauliflower, kale, parsley, cilantro, dill, easter egg radishes, coloured carrots and winter squash. We hope everyone was able to create a nice colourful share of veggies for your Thanksgiving meals.

The brussel sprouts gave us a run for our money today!! They grow on tall stalks and are very close together. The stalks are very tough and we could not cut them down, I had originally wanted to give a stalk/family in the bins this week. So, we slowly snapped off each little sprouts from about 1/3 of the plants giving each large share just about 1lb of sprouts. There was some on the grab table as well. The remaining plants are a different variety so I"m hoping they will be as nice as the ones we harvested today.

Brussel sprouts

The easter egg radishes were so beautiful to harvest. They were like a little happy rainbow hiding under the row cover and Sally and I couldn't get over how pretty they looked while we were harvesting.

Easter egg radishes with a few french breakfast thrown in

Each large share has a pie pumpkin in it. You can either use it as a beautiful centre piece on your table, for carving for Halloween or in a pie!!! I'm pumped about making a pie this weekend. I'm not exactly the best cook but Sally has given me her pumpkin pie recipe and I'm really looking forward to trying it out.

We started harvesting rutabaga's this morning, other wise known as turnip. They were the ugliest things I have ever seen!!!! Turnips and rutabaga's are a magnet for the root maggot fly who lays her eggs at the base of the plant and then they hatch and turn into maggots and feed off the bottom of the root. Needless to say it was very gross and did not make it into the shares. A real bummer as I've been weeding and taking care of these silly plants for a few months now. I guess next year I'll have to go back to keeping them covered with row cover all year!! I kept them covered for all spring and into the summer but I thought the heat would be hard on them, seems the maggots had a great summer!!! So, sorry that there is no rutabagas this year!!!

The tomatoes have really slowed down alot!! They did not ripen much over the weekend with the overcast weather but hopefully this weeks sun will pick them up. It's been a banner tomato year but I'm hoping to have some for the rest of the next three pick-ups, at least for the grab box.

I had an amazing day on Sunday at Farm Day in the City. It was so nice to be out and about and the crowds were great and we sold a boat load of carrots which was great. We have alot of coloured carrots (yellow and purple) left in the ground so it was nice to be able to sell some of those. People could not get over the colour of the carrots, I had no idea that so many people have never seen those varieties before.

Farm day in the city

Lots of carrots!!!

Good times

Leeks from the field.

Hard to tell but its was pouring in this picture. I was filthy but happy to be working in the rain.

Well, I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend with family and farm fresh veggies : )

Here are just a few pictures from this past weekend/week. Enjoy.