Waratah Downs Organic Farm CSA #11

This Friday we seemed to have been mostly missed by the frost that has ravaged some gardens in the Ottawa Valley and Lanark County in particular. There was a touch of frost here and there, some of our squash plants have a tinge of frost on their leaf tips, and a handful of other plants were kissed here and there by the ol jack frost. In my memory growing in this area, this will be the earliest frost we have experienced in 12 plus years. Thankfully we survived and our beans, tomatoes and other tender vittles are looking healthy to take us through a good portion of the fall season.

As mentioned last week, we are down two full time staff, but up a couple of excellent part time helpers. Liz, our local CSA work-share, has been an excellent help to us so far this season, and thankfully is able to lend us a hand with our fall harvest days as well. Danielle, an experienced farmer, and renaissance woman, is joining us happily from down the road at her own homestead. A special thanks to these women for helping lend a hand when we continue to have a push of work for the remainder of the season.

This week we are harvesting leeks for everyone. We hope some are able to enjoy them paired with potatoes for a vichyssoise or potato leek soup. Here is a link to one vichyssoise or potato leek soup. http://www.oliviascuisine.com/classic-vichyssoise-soup/ It is traditionally done as a cold soup, however I have preferred it hot at times myself, so try it out both ways to see what you’d prefer. Here is another take on the soup originally from Mollie Katzen’s Enchanted Broccoli Forest Cookbook. Everyone will also be receiving a scrumptious cantaloupe in their shares this week. It has been so lovely to have these sweet fruits on the farm as they come on. I find the melon to be a great treat for my kids as a snack and as I pack their lunches to head back to school. Otherwise, devouring some slices on my own is just as sweet a reward.

Our Napa Cabbage are beginning to size up, and we have enough for the Medium shares this week, but should be following with Napa for everyone in the next few weeks. I’ve included the link to Wikipedia page on Napa Cabbage for those unfamiliar with this vegetable here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napa_cabbage. It is quite the story of the cultivation of what we here in Canada commonly know as Chinese Cabbage. This is the main vegetable ingredient in Kim Chi for those of you who may be familiar with this lacto-fermented condiment commonly used in Korea. It is quite versatile though, and can be used in anything from soups, sandwiches, Kim chi and cole slaw.

We thank you all for your continued support throughout this season and look forward to our fall and winter crops coming in. We hope you are enjoying the harvest thus far!

-Waratah Downs Organic Farm Team

-Potatoes

-Leeks

-Red Kale

-Yellow Onion

-Salanova Lettuce

-Eggplant

-Slicing tomatoes

-Cantaloupe

-Beans

-Rainbow Chard

-Sweet Peppers(1 large, and 1 pint shishitos-small green sweet peppers)

-Napa Cabbage