Organic = Healthier?

New reasearch from Europe, supporting the claim. At the BBC.

More Nitrogen ... Smaller Yield?

At least in the long term. Interesting news, via EurakAlert.

Fall Produce For Sale - October 27th

This Saturday (October 27th) from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., the farm will be open (to all comers) for fall produce - probable produce includes sweet potatoes, kale, lettuce, arugula, bok choy, mustard greens, collards, and cilantro. Directions to the farm can be found on the web site.

Beets Will Keep

It's sometimes a challenge to use all your veg before it goes bad, but beets will keep. This beet soup is made from beets we got in July shares.

New Research on the Goodness of Garlic

In an entry from yesterday's Well blog.

Grist series on Food & Farming

Grist is currently running a series - Sow What? - on food and farming. Here's an interview with Michael Pollan on his follow-up book to The Omnivore's Dilemma. From here, you can find the other entries in the series.

What's In Store for the CSA ?

Here we are at the end of the CSA season- yet the farm is still vibrant and green. Twenty-one weeks of growing, harvesting and packing boxes has ended. As the cooler fall evenings settle over the beds, our lettuces and kales are doing so well. You can find them at the Heritage Store and Virginia Garden at the VB Farmer's market. The battle with heat has subsided - yet we are still ready for a good rain!

Over the fall and winter, we'll be firming up our list of sharers for next year, receiving deposits and hopefully, forming our Core Group. These folks, members of the CSA, will help us set policies and guidelines for next year. They'll look over the end-of-season surveys that so many of you kindly completed.

For those of you who discover this web blog and are not members, we have a long waiting list and are not opening to new members at this time. We'll have to see how many of our 2007 members are returning and how many folks from the waiting list we can invite to join the farm.

In the meantime, think about growing some of your own fall or spring vegetables. Call us at 427-6515 and leave a message if you need some plants or soil amendments to get your garden started.

End of the 2007 CSA Season

Earlier this week, John was stretching to get those last fabulous okra on plants that withstood the heat and drought this summer. ( I know it appears that he's trying to chop off the top of the birdhouse- trick photography!)

It was a warm October morning. Kristen, Andrea, Jonathan, Craig and John gathered the produce with CSA member Ted Call to fill the boxes one last time this season. It felt good to see everyone and hand out the newsletters one more time, and wonderful to see how much green is showing in the field as the fall crops take their places of honor on the farm.

Yet, it will be quiet the next several months as we get used to a different kind of Saturday on the farm. John will , of course, be distributing produce to the Heritage Store and Virginia Garden as usual- and Gringo's is going to use more of our produce this fall.

Yes, there will be homes for the vegetables, but we won't have our wonderful breakfast gatherings and get the latest news about Paul and Lori Barnhill's newly married daughter, or how Debbie's new job is going, or how well Ted has learned to Tango! We hope folks will keep in touch. And we wish everyone with fall gardens great success!

For those who wanted to join the CSA and were told we were full this year- there will only be a few openings in 2008 and we'll go straight to our waiting lists for those. But for the 2007 folks, thank you so much for another chance to share the harvest!

Autumn's green beginnings

Tanya Banks holds a bottle of Green Light Fire ant treatment.
Unfortunately, her little boy, River, stepped in a fire ant mound and got several stings. We treated him with ice water , Sting-Stop and monster tatoo bandaids. It's a shame we have to deal with these imported visitors to the farm.

Here we are nearly at the end of the CSA season with a good crop of Kale. It should be hardy through the chillier days and nights to come.

These little bok choy plants give the impression of new beginnings- which sounds redundant. But on the farm, autumn heralds the Return of the Greens. Last week, volunteers planted many kinds of greens and this week, with cool weather, watering and a little raing- they're thriving.

There's an excitement on the wind as the farm continues to thrive.

Week 17 (Sept 15, 2007)

Field Notes:

Burgeoning Celeriac Root

James, Kristen and John working on transplants.

This Week's Share: Arugula, Basil, Eggplant, Garlic, Green Beans, Peppers, Swiss Chard, Tomatoes, Squash




This week's squash comes to us from Farmer Patrick. These are delicata squash.