Week #16 Saturday, Oct. 4th - Tuesday Oct. 7th

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In your bag:
Winter Squash - (Delicata – cut this sweet squash in half lengthwise before baking.  The skin is so tender, it can be eaten as well.)
Leeks, Potatoes, Onions, Garlic
Poblano Peppers - (picked before the frost)
Turnips, Carrots
Rutabaga
Broccoli or Cauliflower or Brussel Sprouts
Italian Parsley, Thyme

Some Notes about this week’s Veggies
~You may want to soak your broccoli in a bowl of salt water (4 tsp. salt to 1 qt water) before cooking.  The soak will drive out any cabbage loopers (green worms) that may be hidden in there.
~These Hakurei turnips are a new turnip variety for us, recommended by other growers.  They are amazingly sweet and can be eaten raw in a salad if you like.  They can also be cooked and the greens lightly cooked as well.

Coming Soon. 
Next week we’ll have Brussels sprouts for you, more broccoli and/or cauliflower, winter squash, kale and maybe another rutabaga.

Farm News
It’s a very frosty morning on the farm – frosty enough that it is the end of the tomatoes and peppers.  We were anticipating this one and, upon arrival, our Tuesday harvesters headed out to the squash field to harvest the delicata and butternut squash.   Generally it looks like a very good squash harvest with the butternut still being a question mark.  Some of it is just not fully ripe though we’ve been told it will continue to ripen after harvest.  We shall see.
We also had a number of people respond to our e-mail announcing “tomato gleaning day” and thus bushels of tomatoes were picked and taken home for preserving.
 The coming of a hard frost generally means a slight shifting of gears on the farm.  Frosty mornings mean a later start in the field (longer cups of coffee) for us and a general slowing down.  We are ready for it! 
We still have beets and Brussels sprouts to harvest, plenty of carrots yet to pull and wash but, weather permitting, it can all be done at a manageable pace.  
Our attention now turns to garlic planting.   We’ll be checking the forecast to see when we have a stretch of weather that will allow for both field preparation and garlic planting.   A couple of days before planting we’ll put one of our harvest crews to work “popping” the garlic.  Each head of garlic that has been selected for seed will need to be divided into individual cloves for planting. 
On the home front, inspired by Barbara Kingsolver’s “Animal, Vegetable Miracle” we’ve been preserving as much as ever.  This past week it’s been tomatoes and peppers (salsa, pizza sauce, spaghetti sauce).  Next week, on to the apples!

Harvest Dinner November 1st
Spring Hill’s Annual Fall Dinner will be held Saturday evening November 1st at St. Frances Cabrini Church in Minneapolis.  Mark your calendar now and look for a flyer soon!

Vegetables through October!
Weekly vegetable deliveries will continue through October.  The final Saturday delivery will be October 25th and the last Tuesday delivery October 28th. 

Next Week’s Harvesters
Saturday, October  11th  – Laura & Paul Morrill, Karen & Dan Melander, Kristin & Tim Dyrhaug Janelle Waldock & Mike Maguire, Lynn Cibuzar & Mickey Moore
Tuesday,  October 14th  -  Carrie Pomeroy, Pat Jones & Jeannette Raymond, Gerrie Barosso,  Helen Torrens