CSA #26

Dear CSA-ers,

This week’s preassembled bag will contain Sweet Potatoes (Amish), Romaine Head Lettuce, Spring Mix, Swiss Chard, Mix of Tomatoes, and a Clove of Garlic. For those of you placing custom orders, you may do so between now and Tuesday evening on the website at: http://magneyfarm.locallygrown.net/market

This past Monday was the first day of fall and we are so excited to be getting into our cool season vegetables. Fall vegetables provide a deep rich flavor that comes from the concentrating of sugars and vitamins for the coming winter. Although we are still experiencing summer temps in the afternoon, the night-time hours have been cooling. Thankfully, the weather forecast says that we should expect more fall-like weather by the end of this week. Our goal for this season is to have all of our outdoor crops planted this week. After that we will move into our hightunnel space and should have these fully planted by the first of November.
This means that our solanaceous crops will be coming out of the tunnels within the next few weeks. The tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant have done an excellent job producing for us throughout the summer. However, just like us, they get tired and are reaching the end of their lifespans. Eggplants will be the first to come out as they have halted their production most drastically. We still have some peppers and tomatoes that should be able to keep in the warm tunnel conditions for a few more weeks. In your bags this week will be a mix of green and red tomatoes, as it is taking the plants longer to ripen enough tomatoes at once. Overall, we are thrilled by the successes we have had with the solanaceous crops this year. We had our first successful harvest of colored peppers, we were better able to maintain the health of all three crops with proper water and fertilizer systems, and we got all of them into the hightunnels earlier in the season than last year.
Unfortunately, like with everything in farming we did have some failures this year too. If you have been keeping tab in your newsletters, you will remember that we attempted to open up some new plots in our back fields for long season crops like sweet potatoes, watermelons, and winter squash. Watermelons ended up being a surprise harvest, but sadly the other crops did not make it to fruition. New fields require extra attention as we strive to build soil health, bed structure, and manage well established weed pressure. The longer you work a plot with sustainable practices, the easier it becomes to produce crops on them because of improvements to these attributes. In our CSA we aim to provide you our customers, with a diversity of vegetables throughout the year. For this fall, we will be sourcing sweet potatoes and winter squash from the local Amish in our area as we were not able to produce them successfully in the new plots. Although the Amish do not produce organically, we believe they strive for sustainability in their production and are closest in growing practices to ourselves. For your reference, we will make sure to clarify on the market which vegetable are sourced from the Amish in the vegetable’s title. We learned a lot from trying to produce in these new plots and are looking forward to growing in them again next year as we try to produce all of your vegetable needs from our farm.
Sincerely,
The Magney Legacy Ridge Farm Team