First Frost, Last Week

Last week we had our first frost at Powisset Farm.  In the days before the frost we harvested napa cabbage and peppers and the last handful of eggplants.  We covered our beautiful butter-head lettuce with heavy row cover, hoping the frost would stay off of the tender leaves.  We admired the shining pepper plants and full sweet potato vines, at the verge of their demise.  The first frost brings a true end to those summer crops we have been hanging onto and sweetens the roots and kale that can withstand some of the next few near-thirty degree mornings. 

The next morning we got up to set up for our Saturday morning distribution.  With many layers and hats and rain bibs, we set up the barn and pulled bins of vegetables out of the walk-in cooler, which now felt warmer than the outside air.  The five of us, the core of this season's Powisset team, worked like we were in a perfectly choreographed dance--sliding around each other between cooler and distribution tables, ducking and weaving, piling and primping the vegetables--like we had been doing this for a while, because we have.

This week is our final week of summer distribution!  My cold hands picking lettuce, the perfect organization of a Saturday distribution and that first frost all convinced me that this is indeed the end of our summer CSA season.  The days are getting shorter, the soil is getting colder and we are prepping the soil for next season's garlic field--more things pointing out that we are closer and closer to another winter on the farm.

I have cherished this season for its amazing crew--truly talented, hardworking, creative and enthusiastic people who make every work day a great day.  I have been filled with joy about the growth of our CSA community.  It is my favorite thing to be able to spend time up at the barn on a busy Saturday, watching you all come through the farm, connecting with each other and sharing your recipes, farm experiences, or events of the day with me.  And I am constantly stunned by the beauty of this farm;  the sunrises behind the butler barn, the carrots- weeded and growing in perfect rows, the laughter of the crew, the time spend with my knees in the soil making bunches of beets.

Thank you for being a part of this wonderful 2012 season!  I hope that you feel nourished and satisfied by the farm, the veggies and each other! 

See you in the fields,

Meryl (on behalf of the powisset farm crew)

***next week: CSA value report, CSA survey****

What's in the share:

beets, carrots, collards, kale, parsnips, winter squash, peppers, potatoes, sweet potatoes and more!