Happy Fall! Yesterday while I was drinking my first espresso in the early a.m., the sun bumped us into the other side of the year. For farmers, that means the bulk of our physical work is tapering off, and the bulk of our mental work begins.  One experienced farmer I love calls this phase of the year "winter brain." She uses winter brain to run excel sheets on farm productivity and plan budgets - thank goodness, because I go to her classes in February and learn a ton!  I use winter brain to lobby legislators and do farm advocacy work both at home and away.  Last week I was in Washington, DC, as a representative of the National Farmers Union, talking to senators and representatives and their aides about the needs of family-scaled farms across the country. From there I flew to Chicago and spent Saturday at Farm Aid 30. In the photo above, you can see me with three of my colleagues from Green County Defending Our Farmland - a local group that is fighting the un-regulated siting of factory farms here at home. Farm Aid brought us in for two days of farm advocacy training with some of the giants of the movement,  including a presentation by Willy Nelson, Neil Young, John Mellancamp and Dave Matthews.  They gave us tickets to the show and brought us backstage for media interviews and a pretty awesome lunch in the musician's tent! Walked right by Jack Johnson on my way to the coffee.  We passed out a ton of flyers to try and get Illinois folks who vacation in Wisconsin to sign our petition asking for more research into the effects of factory farms on the watersheds. We saw some great musical acts in the process! By the way - please check out our organization and sign the petition, if you feel so inclined, here.

Thank goodness the work in the gardens is ALL HARVEST right now.  When I got home this week, veggies were practically leaping off the dirt and vines into my arms. Boy, the eating is good right now! I'm having a blast planning the menu for this Saturday's final field-to-table dinner, and I we had a ball putting together these beautiful kaleidoscopic shares for you this morning. Here's what's in the box:

Pumpkin - It's odd to have a hard squash at the top of the list, indicating you should use it PRONTO. But we had a terrible late-season infestation of squash beetles and they spread a disease with their mouths that makes the squash rot quickly. So it's good to eat - just eat it soon! Make a pie this weekend, like I am:)

Tomatoes - Ripe and juicy heirlooms are the stars of this week's box. Lots of pink brandywines! The BEST tasting tomato known to man. Messy, though!

Raspberries - Last of the season. Enjoy.

Basil - Yummy yum.

Peppers - Lots of pretty sweet peppers in here! Tiny and long ones are hot.

Greens: Arugula and Endive - YAY! Greens are back! I love how fall is spring all over again with tender greens. These are the first cuttings from fall greens field. Enjoy with radishes!

Aronia Berries - Another box for you to experiment with. Have fun! We're going to have Aronia Fizz cocktails on Saturday evening.

Kohlrabi - One of my all-time favorite veggies. Of course, I'm all about the brassicas. We wish these were bigger. Perhaps you'll enjoy shredding them over a salad, or making into little matchsticks and eating with yogurt dip.

Onions - Similar to the pumpkins, these picked up something in the field (a different one, though) that is causing them to not cure properly. All that means is eat them now, and store in the fridge.

Herb Bunches - You've got parsley and sage here, half of a Simon and Garfunkel song.

Kale - Tender, fresh leaves are benefitting from the cool nights.

Radishes - French breakfast!

Leeks - These beautiful baby leeks are tender and just perfect to slice into potato leek soup with the russets we packed for you. Exceptional!

Russet Potatoes - Terrific for baking and mashing. But amazing with leeks in soup. I'll use duck stock for mine - but you can use just a milk base, or a chicken stock one.

The harvest list isn't coming to you from the farmhouse desk today, friends. My computer is resting on a marble cafe table in a delightful little robin's-egg-blue bistro called Le Bon in Washington, DC. I'm eating a delicious mesclun salad with baguette croutons slathered in goat cheese and listening to French covers of American pop hits, with some Beatles thrown in.  Right now Please Please Me is on. I wonder if "French Covers of Classic American Songs" is a Pandora station.  I'm drinking Illy coffee surrounded by people in sharp suits and quite a few red patterned ties. Of course, I'm in a suit, too! (If you peeked under the table, though,  you'd spot my fancy pair of cowboy boots - I couldn't quite pull off pumps while hustling back and forth across Capitol Hill.)

I've been here all week as part of a Wisconsin delegation with the National Farmers Union. We've been walking the halls of Congress meeting with senators, representatives and their aides to try and convey the issues that family-scaled farmers care about.  I've sat in lots of congressional offices, stood a lot in hallway meetings, and probably spent the majority of my time hustling through the basement corridors that connect all the various vast buildings that house the congressional offices. Between the 270 of us farmers that came to DC this week, we visited every one of the 535 representatives. I've got lots I'd like to tell you about my trip and I'll be writing up a report today in Reagan International while I'm waiting for my plane to Chicago.  I'll post it tonight or tomorrow under the On the Farm tab.

Tonight I'll be hopping off the plane at Chicago and staying overnight so I can be present there for the 30th Farm Aid Concert on Saturday afternoon. As a representative of the South Central Chapter of the Wisconsin Farmers Union and the Green County Defending our Farmland coalition, I'll be meeting with members of the media backstage to spread the word about a giant CA mega-dairy trying to quietly and quickly re-locate to Green County, just over the Illinois border and right next door to us. I'll also be trying to educate the press and public on the very important water and environmental issues surrounding the re-location of California's desperate dairies to Midwestern rural areas that are largely un-equipped to handle the siting, inspection and environmental impact studies that are required to safely build tremendous industrial ag operations like these. I might try to get a look at Willy Nelson, too!

So I'm flying a bit blind writing up this harvest list today. I did a field walk right before I left the farm and left a picking and packing list for my tiny fall crew. They have texted me this morning that the harvest went pretty much according to plan and that the boxes are gloriously full and beautiful. I am soooo thankful for them. And for you. Thank you for your support of small farms, sustainable agriculture, and the local economy!  You can tell I've been talking to politicians all week, no? Here's what's in the box.

Melon - Most of you will have one of each of the perfectly ripe melons that the crew picked this week. A small watermelon and a juice muskmelon or cantaloupe. Eat soon!

Kohlrabi - The first of these! I eat these raw, peeled, out of my hand like an apple. But you might want to shred into salad, or slice into soups.

Peppers - Lots and lots! Generally, blocky ones are sweet and small skinny ones are spicy. Take a little taste before you eat a huge bite!

Arugula - First cutting of the fall. LOTS of arugula salads served out here in DC, and I've been delighted.

Eggplants - Beautiful and thin-skinned. Saute, roast, steam. Pair with white sauces or olive oil and thyme.

Tomatoes - The crew has boxed up your cherries, but you'll be picking out your own heirlooms. There are small boxes made up for you in the cool room - fill them with a single layer of the tomatoes of your choice.

Cukes

Potatoes - Beautiful Red Norlands

Basil

Brussels Sprout Tops - These are the trimmings off the top of the Brussels Sprout stalks in the field. We take the top of now so the plant will put it's energy into sprouts. These leaves are great sliced or dices and cooked like kale or collards til tender. I recommend frying with bacon grease.

Scallions

Leeks - First of the year! Pair with potatoes in soup or saute.

Onions

Michelle Obama's Kitchen Garden sits right on the edge of the White House lawn. Not too big, but very well-weeded! Apparently she's a big fan of Delicata Squash. You'll be getting that in the next box!

Basil – A great week for basil - enjoy pretty Caprese salad with several colors of heirloom tomatoes, mozzarella cheese and thin snips of basil leaves. Spray with a light spritz of olive  oil and sprinkle with a high-quality vinegar. Coarse salt, pepper, a few slices of bread - a heavenly dinner on a hot night.

Raspberries – We could pick these twice a day and still miss some. The vines are LOADED and the berries are bursting with flavor. Doesn’t get fresher than this. My favorite are the golden ones.  Eat soon, store in the fridge, and don't actually store sealed in the clamshell. They'll mold.

Wild Plums - We've never put these in the boxes before in all our 8 years of CSA growing.  Sometimes our little plum grove produces nothing, other years it makes something. When we were lucky enough to get some fruits, we've just eaten them up ourselves! But we pruned the prickly little trees heavily last year, and this year the fruits are big and juicy and tart and terrific. Not sure you'd call them pretty - but we don't spray at all, even organically allowed pesticides and fungicides, so they are rather rough. If you don't like the tartness of the skin, you can slip it off, but I think it's the best part!

Melon! – Lovely green-fleshed muskmelons or orange canteloupes for you this week.  They are perfectly ripe, brought in from the field on the day they were ready to slip from the vine! A drippy, sweet treat.

Tomatoes! – This could be peak week for tomatoes – you’ve got a TON in these heavy boxes. Remember – color doesn’t count! We’ve got tomatoes that’ll be ripe when green, when orange, when purple, when pink and when red, so go by feel. And the cherries - wow! Mostly Sun Golds, these are sweet and juicy. Check out the wonderful recipe for Tomato Jam given to us by a lovely bed and breakfast guest this week. BTW - don't store your cherry tomatoes closed in the clamshell. They'll mold from all the moisture of their respiration. Dump into a pretty bowl and enjoy nibbling right off the counter!

Tomatillos – Some years I don’t grow these and some years I do. If you’ve ever grown them, you know they are just such a pain to harvest!  They grow in little paper bags, so you can’t see how big they are and you have to feel them to find out if they are full in the bag, which is when they are ready. Often, they fall from the plant RIGHT as they ripen. Frustrating, but SOOO YUMMY. I must say I am glad I grew them this year. We’ve been roasting them and making salsa verde with the lovely big scallions and Hungarian hot wax peppers. We wish we had cilantro in the field, but we are buying it, just like you! The hot dry weather last week sent them all into bolting.  Check the Farmer Kriss Pinterest page for recipes.

Herbs: Thyme and Chives - We've been getting lots of requests for MORE CHIVES PLEASE, so here they are. And by the way - just ask if you'd like some plants of your own. We've got more than we need and we are moving our perennial herbs this fall. There will be lots of chives for the taking! Thyme is a necessity in tomato and eggplant season.

Cucumbers – It has been a great year here for cukes! You've got mostly the Lemon Yellow variety - which are getting so pretty with their fall colors!

Peppers – Not a lot of ripe color yet, but lots of lovely greens. Tiny peppers are FIRE-Y hot.

Eggplant –  Dice and enjoy sautéed with squash and pepper. Don’t peel! At this size they are not bitter skinned.

Brussels Sprout Tops - We top the Brussels sprouts now so the plants will put energy in to sprouts on the side and not into getting taller. These are like little niblets of sprouts - in cabbage leaf form. Sautee in bacon for a ridiculous treat!

Aronia Berries - Yay! These are a wonderful, nutritious, native berry that is being grown by our close neighbors at Barham Gardens in Blanchardville. Kim and Roberta have been nurturing these pretty bushes on their place for several years and now they are selling them at the Dane County Farmer's Market, at HyVee and other Madison locations. And you've got some, too! They aren't really to be eaten raw, but cooked into muffins, desserts, chocolate treats and breads, they are delicious. Like rhubarb, they play well with other fruits. I've been making Aronia goat cheese - you can get it this week at the Argyle Farmer's Market, and I'll have more berries there, too. Oh, and Aronia muffins and scones for sure! We've put some great ideas for you up on the Farmer Kriss Pinterest Page, but also we've got an easy Aronia Lime Jam over at the Recipe Blog.

Onions – Lovely mix of shallots and yellow sweet onions, some squat cippollinis. We had trouble curing our onions after harvest this year - bad timing with rains and intense humidity - so many of these are already trying to re-sprout. We are storing them in the fridge to inhibit sprouting, and you should, too. Use within a few weeks - before the next box!

New Potatoes: Peter Wilcox and Red Norland - Both of these are colored on the outside and white or cream on the inside. Great salad potatoes, wonderful for frying into breakfast hashbrowns. Both varieties are bigger and beefier than the last time we dug and packed, but the skins are still soft, so scrub gently, skip the peeling, and enjoy the extra vitamins!

Squash Blossoms – We're not always able to pack these, but this year our pumpkins are making loads of blossoms and we can pick them in the morning for just a few hours before they close up. These are amazing stuffed with goat cheese or ricotta and sauted in a little oil. I stuff them and spray with olive oil and bake in the oven until they wilt. Delicious, special treat! We've also been putting these on top of our egg quiches and serving them to bed and breakfast guests. The dish always gets a delighted gasp!



Basil – Not a lot, but you've gotta have it with tomatoes! From our new planting in the hoophouse.

Raspberries – We could pick these twice a day and still miss some. The vines are LOADED and the berries are bursting with flavor. Doesn’t get fresher than this. My favorite are the golden ones.  Eat soon, store in the fridge, and don't actually store sealed in the clamshell. They'll mold.

Wild Plums - We've never put these in the boxes before in all our 8 years of CSA growing.  Sometimes our little plum grove produces nothing, other years it makes something. When we were lucky enough to get some fruits, we've just eaten them up ourselves! But we pruned the prickly little trees heavily last year, and this year the fruits are big and juicy and tart and terrific. Not sure you'd call them pretty - but we don't spray at all, even organically allowed pesticides and fungicides, so they are rather rough. If you don't like the tartness of the skin, you can slip it off, but I think it's the best part!

Melon! – We don’t always see these ripen in our chilly valley, but we do our best, starting the plants in our little greenhouse while it’s still cold, and then putting the vines on black plastic out in the field to increase the heat the ground will hold beneath them. This year it worked! Lovely cantaloupes for you this week, though some have a bit of bug damage where the skin stayed damp on the black plastic. Oh, well – tradeoffs! The bugs only munched into the rind, and left the sweet inner flesh for us! Eat these SOON - we pick them ripe in the field, rather than picking them early and letting them ripen in the cooler. It means more daily checking and harvesting, but MORE flavor for you! You can store this in the fridge, as it is ripe and doesn't need to ripen further on the counter. If you can't eat it within a week, consider freezing chunks to throw into smoothies, or see the Farmer Kriss Pinterest page for some great recipes, including a sorbet! See our photo essay on the FULL SLIP method of harvesting.

Tomatoes! – This could be peak week for tomatoes – you’ve got a TON in these heavy boxes. Remember – color doesn’t count! We’ve got tomatoes that’ll be ripe when green, when orange, when purple, when pink and when red, so go by feel. And the cherries - wow! Mostly Sun Golds, these are sweet and juicy. Check out the wonderful recipe for Tomato Jam given to us by a lovely bed and breakfast guest this week. BTW - don't store your cherry tomatoes closed in the clamshell. They'll mold from all the moisture of their respiration. Dump into a pretty bowl and enjoy nibbling right off the counter!

Tomatillos – Some years I don’t grow these and some years I do. If you’ve ever grown them, you know they are just such a pain to harvest!  They grow in little paper bags, so you can’t see how big they are and you have to feel them to find out if they are full in the bag, which is when they are ready. Often, they fall from the plant RIGHT as they ripen. Frustrating, but SOOO YUMMY. I must say I am glad I grew them this year. We’ve been roasting them and making salsa verde with the lovely big scallions and Hungarian hot wax peppers. We wish we had cilantro in the field, but we are buying it, just like you! The hot dry weather last week sent them all into bolting.  Check the Farmer Kriss Pinterest page for recipes.

Sorrel - So fresh and so delicious with new potatoes. But great with eggs, too!

Cucumbers – It has been a great year here for cukes, though the bugs are getting the best of the plants now. Ah, the ravages of August. You've got a few here, but you might not next week.  Looks like the little lemon cukes may last a bit longer than the greens.

Peppers – Not a lot of ripe color yet, but lots of lovely greens. Blocky peppers are sweet, long peppers of all sizes are hot. Tiny peppers are FIRE-Y hot.

Eggplant –  Just a few little ones this week! Dice and enjoy sautéed with squash and pepper. Don’t peel! At this size they are not bitter skinned.

Herbs:  Thyme and Chives - We've been getting lots of requests for MORE CHIVES PLEASE, so here they are. And by the way - just ask if you'd like some plants of your own. We've got more than we need and we are moving our perennial herbs this fall. There will be lots of chives for the taking!

Kale – Beautiful, robust leaves are so delicious with fresh tomatoes. Tonight for dinner I had a simple saute onions, chopped tomatoes, green pepper and kale. Seasoned just with salt, pepper and nutritional yeast. No olive oil necessary!

Aronia Berries - Yay! These are a wonderful, nutritious, native berry that is being grown by our close neighbors at Barham Gardens in Blanchardville. Kim and Roberta have been nurturing these pretty bushes on their place for several years and now they are selling them at the Dane County Farmer's Market, at HyVee and other Madison locations. And you've got some, too! They aren't really to be eaten raw, but cooked into muffins, desserts, chocolate treats and breads, they are delicious. Like rhubarb, they play well with other fruits. I've been making Aronia goat cheese - you can get it this week at the Argyle Farmer's Market, and I'll have more berries there, too. Oh, and Aronia muffins and scones for sure! We've put some great ideas for you up on the Farmer Kriss Pinterest Page, but also we've got an easy Aronia Lime Jam over at the Recipe Blog.

Onions – Lovely mix of shallots and yellow sweet onions, some squat cippollinis. We had trouble curing our onions after harvest this year - bad timing with rains and intense humidity - so many of these are already trying to re-sprout. We are storing them in the fridge to inhibit sprouting, and you should, too. Use within a few weeks - before the next box!

Scallions – These awesome Japanese scallions are big, beefy, flavorful and just a joy to use in salsa, eggs or on tacos. So little washing for so much onion! 

New Potatoes: Peter Wilcox and Red Norland - Both of these are colored on the outside and white or cream on the inside. Great salad potatoes, wonderful for frying into breakfast hashbrowns. Both varieties are bigger and beefier than the last time we dug and packed, but the skins are still soft, so scrub gently, skip the peeling, and enjoy the extra vitamins!