Vegetable and fruit shares: Week 17!

Community Supported Agriculture

In This Issue

Farm Notes

In Your Share

Vegisode of the Week

Register now for Late Fall

Groundwork Share-a-Share

Tuesday Delivery Details

Tuesdays

11am - 4pm

Cambridge Pickup Details

Tuesdays

3:00pm - 6:00pm

Cambridge Hospital
1493 Cambridge St

Cambridge, MA

Dracut Pickup Details

Tuesdays

Choice Style
3:00pm - 6:30pm

Pre-Boxed
3:00pm - 7:00pm

Farmer Dave's Farm

437 Parker Road

Dracut, MA

Jamaica Plain Pickup Details

Tuesdays

4:00pm - 7:00pm

Community Servings

18 Marbury Terrace

Jamaica Plain, MA

Lawrence Pickup Details

Tuesdays

Choice Style
3:00pm - 6:30pm

Pre-Boxed

3:00pm - 7:00pm

Groundwork Lawrence

60 Island Street

Lawrence, MA

Helpful Links

Farm Notes :

Samuel harvesting sweet potatoes.

This week we seeded the first winter cover crops - oats, vetch and rye - on some of our fields. Cover crops are an integral component of sustainable agriculture. They protect the soil against erosion and soil crusting while they are growing. Then, before they reach full maturity, they are tilled under as a "green manure," which enriches soil fertility. All this effort leads to healthier harvests.

The sweet potatoes are now being harvested and cured. When sweet potatoes are first harvested, they are actually rather bland. We leave them in a sunny greenhouse, where some of the starches will convert to sugars, so they sweeten up. Once they sweeten up, they will be included in the shares. And it is looking to be an excellent sweet potato harvest this year! There will also be abundant sweet potatoes in the late fall share.

Winter squash also needs to be cured in a similar manner as sweet potatoes. Soon we will begin picking our own winter squash. For this, we must wait until after the rain and the squash dry out. This ensures they do not spoil while curing.

Now that fall is here, we begin to watch the weather for signs of potential damaging frosts. Some years we have been frost free right until the end of October. So far we are looking great moving forward. Every year we have been planting more and more of the frost tolerant crops so that the bountiful harvest continues regardless of a frosty night.

The harvest continues...

Farmer Dave

In Your Share: Week 17

Fall is in the air! We should begin a slow shift away from the peak summer fruits and vegetables like cucumbers and watermelons to fall favorites like apples, carrots, leeks and eventually winter squash and potatoes.

This is what we are planning and hoping to harvest this week. Ultimately Mother Nature has the last word so the actual contents of your share will vary.

Beets
Carrots
Arugula
Onions
Bell, Cubanelle or Carmen Peppers
Cherry Tomatoes
Chives or Mint
Kale or Swiss Chard
and more!

Fruit Share:

Cortland Apples
Pears
Macoun or MacIntosh apples
Honeycrisp apples
and possibly more depending on weather

*CSA members have indicated in our year-end survey that they would overwhelmingly prefer that we include only produce that we've grown ourselves in the vegetable shares. Our own winter squash is not yet ready to harvest. You should be seeing winter squash in your vegetable share later in the season, once we've harvested and cured it. In the meantime, we've started carrying some squash from other farms in our farm stands, so it is available for purchase for those who would like it.

Try some of these recipes from our blog!

Vegisode of the Week!

Satisfying Your Apple-tite

VEGISODE: Satisfying Your Apple-tite

Want some more ideas? Check out our Pinterest Recipe Boards! or Vegisodes!

Have a great tip or recipe to share? Email it to us to have it included in our newsletter and recipe blog!

Register Now for Late Fall!

Here at Farmer Dave's, many of the farm staff refer to the Late Fall Share as "the most wonderful time of the year." It's chock full of all of our favorite fall vegetables and fruit....and it's already 60% full, so make sure you sign up ASAP to guarantee your space!

Late Fall Shares are available in the following locations:
-Burlington (Mondays 4:00 - 6:30 pm)
-Lanesville (Mondays 3:30 - 6:30 pm)
-Reading (Mondays 3:00 - 6:30 pm)
-Dracut (Tuesdays 3:00 - 7:00 pm)
-Lawrence (Tuesdays 3:00 - 7:00 pm)
-Tewksbury (Thursday 3:00 - 7:00 pm)
-East Somerville (Wednesdays 3:00 - 7:00 pm)
-East Boston (Wednesdays 2:00 - 6:00 pm)
-Westford (Fridays 2:00 - 6:00pm)
-Malden (Fridays 3:00 - 6:00pm)

-Quincy (Fridays 3:00 - 6:00pm)
-Home Delivery by Metro Pedal Power on Wednesdays (Somerville, Cambridge, many neighborhoods in Boston)
-Home Delivery by Farmer Dave's in Dracut, Lowell, Tewksbury, Methuen Andover, North Andover, Wakefield, Melrose, Stoneham, North Reading, Reading, Woburn, Salem NH, Pelham NH, Windham NH

Late Fall Share Details

The Late Fall share will run for 7 weeks, beginning in early November and ending in mid-December.

You can look forward the following in items your Late Fall share, harvest permitting:

Brussels sprouts, cabbage, broccoli, sweet potatoes, potatoes, carrots, beets, onions, celeriac, turnips, winter squashes, spinach , winter greens, leeks, apples, and lettuce.

Depending on when the last frost of the season occurs, we sometimes are able to include summer crops like peppers, eggplant, or corn in the late fall share. Each season's mixture varies based on crop conditions.

How can I sign up?

Looking forward to growing for you this fall!

The Farmer Dave's Crew

Groundwork Share-a-Share:

Please consider helping us in our efforts to make the CSA accessible to more families by donating to Groundwork Share-A-Share. With the help of CSA members like you, Groundwork has been able to help subsidize the cost of CSA shares for families who would otherwise be unable to afford participation.

To learn more about the program, click here.

Thank you all for helping us keep this program going in 2016!

C ontact Us:

Farmer Dave's CSA

437 Parker Road

Dracut, MA 01826

(978) 349-1952

farm@farmerdaves.net