Thanks for joining the Fall CSA Share!

The first week’s newsletter of each CSA season is always dense, but has useful information, updates on specifics for this season, and answers to common questions.

How To Use This Newsletter

Each week, usually in this order, the newsletter will have:

A list of the vegetables available
A button to click if you’d like to have your items packed and delivered
A button to click for a reminder of the different pickup and delivery options each week
Any random reminders or information
Farm news
Weekly recipe

We understand life can be busy and chaotic— it is for us!— so we keep the important information near the top in case you can’t read a newsletter each week. The farm news and recipes are just bonus content if you want to know more about what goes on here.

If you are totally new to our CSA, start by reading this brief explanation of how to get veggies each week. If you still have questions, give us a call or email and we’ll make sure you know how it works.

*Look at these gorgeous stripes, photo by Adam Ford*

CSA Nuts and Bolts Reminders

(The only thing in this section different from the summer season is that picking up at the barn is now only on Wednesdays and Thursdays.)

At the barn….

If you pick out your veggies at the barn, CSA hours are Wednesdays and Thursdays from 9 am to 8 pm.
If you prefer less traffic at the barn when you pick up, you may be interested to know that Wednesdays (especially between 3 pm and 6 pm) are the busiest times at the farm for CSA pickup.
If you pick up your veggies at the barn, you may also see some other products (maple syrup, bread, and certified organic grass-fed beef) from neighbor farms. You can purchase those items as extras, and leave payment in the cash box at pickup. These aren’t interchangeable with CSA veggie items. (If you use a check you can still make it out to Evening Song Farm.)
To get to the barn, our address “48 Nice Road, Cuttingsville VT” actually works in maps now! Wow! Then pull up to the barn, and go up the ramp, and the veggies will be displayed inside on the tables and display cooler.

If you order a bag for delivery….

If you miss the order form window for a delivered bag any week, send us an email, and we will confirm that we added it to the packing list. We LOVE when people actually get their veggies, and we are happy to hear from you.
If you pick up your bag at one of the delivery spots, just keep in mind that they aren’t stored in a cooler after we drop them off. The veggies keep well because they are either inside or in full shade, but it’s best to pick them up that day instead of letting them continue to sit out overnight.
The Ludlow pickup spot is now at Four Seasons Sotheby’s International Realty (at 57 Ponmd Street) from 1 pm to 5 pm on Wednesdays and Fridays.

For every CSA member…

If you miss a week of veggies, feel free to make that up whenever you want. We just ask that you keep track of your makeup items yourself.
We appreciate hearing from you if you ever get a bad veggie or it goes bad faster than expected. We learn from it, and it helps us catch bigger issues. And we also love if you make up that bad veggie in future weeks. Our goal is that you get wonderful food each week.
If you feel like you need to adjust your share size, let us know. Our theme is flexibility, and we love when it works for you to get veggies this way.
Did you know….. that all the weekly recipes are stored and searchable by veggie or season here?!

*good morning from the kale field below the barn and the house, photo by Adam Ford*

Woohoo, you made it through all the dense details for the start of the season! Now it’s just information about this week!

This Week’s Availability

This week we will have leeks, brussels sprouts, butternut squash, purple kohlrabi, red beets, yellow beets, chioggia beets (pink and white striped), rainbow mix of daikon radishes (red, purple, and white), watermelon radishes, Ailsa Craig sweet onions, shallots, carrots, garlic, seed garlic*, green cabbage, red and yellow potatoes**, sweet peppers, poblano peppers, painted mountain flour corn, jalapeno peppers, serrano peppers, red and green napa cabbage, baby bok choi, salad turnips, green curly kale, lacinato kale, brussels crowns, cilantro, arugula, baby lettuce, spinach, mesclun mix, pea shoots, spicy greens mix, baby kale, parsley, tomatillos, husk cherries, frozen cherry tomatoes***, and frozen heirloom/beefsteak tomatoes***!

*Seed garlic is the same garlic that has been available for CSA, but we set aside the largest heads for seed: these larger cloves will grow bigger garlic than smaller ones. We generally plant our garlic seed around October 15th and mulch thickly with straw. We will have two varieties available: Music (4-6 huge cloves per head) and German Red (8-10 large cloves per head). Garlic can be planted as closely as 6 inches apart, but 12 inches apart will grow larger heads. If you select it on your order form and have a variety prefence, make that note in the comment section. (Or if you prefer purchasing a larger bulk amount of seed garlic instead of an item’s worth, the seed garlic is $14 per pound.)

**Sourced from Atlas Farm, certified organic.

***Frozen tomatoes?! During the summer we vacuum seal surplus tomatoes. The cherry tomato bags are a pint’s worth. The larger tomatoes are 2 1/4 pounds of a mixture of heirlooms and beefsteak tomatoes in each bag. These taste wonderful… a reminder of summer… but they are only good cooked. We use the cherry tomatoes blistered in pasta dishes and we use the tomatoes stewed or in sauces.

CSA Bag Delivery Order Form

Fill out the delivery form by noon on Tuesdays.

You do not need to fill out the form if you plan to come to the barn on Wednesdays or Thursdays to pick out your items yourself.

CSA pickup and delivery days and times

Please make a note that the Ludlow delivery spot is now at Four Seasons Sotheby’s International Realty from 1pm to 5 pm.

Bulk vegetables available for processing

When we have bulk amounts available with veggies, we like to pass along our wholesale prices to CSA members in case you want to do some processing. Below are the current wholesale prices for certain veggies. If you are interested in getting a bulk amount of anything, send us an email. Thanks!

Onions: $20 for 10 pounds, $35 for 20 pounds

Green Curly Kale: $14 for 5 bunches, $24 for 10 bunches

Lacinato Kale: $14 for 5 bunches, $24 for 10 bunches

Garlic: $12 per pound

Seed Garlic: $14 per pound (German Red and German White available)

Jalapenos: $6 per pound, $25 for 5 pounds

Serranos: $6 per pound, $25 for 5 pounds

Also, if you are looking for any bulk amounts of sweet peppers for processing, contact Alchemy Gardens. They are also certified organic, and currently have a surplus of gorgeous, ripe sweet peppers. (They attend the Rutland Farmers’ Market.)

*Winter greens growing, photo by Adam Ford*

CSA Balance Due

Payment for your fall CSA share is due this week unless you need a different payment plan. (And please reach out to us if you need a different payment plan, we are happy to do that.) You can mail a check to Evening Song Farm, 48 Nice Road, Cuttingsville, VT 05738, leave cash or check in the box at the barn, use this link to pay online, or call or email us to pay with EBT or F2F coupons.

*Bella and Zeah grazing above the veggie fields, phot by Adam Ford*

Farm News

(optional reading… this is just for folks who like to know a bit about what goes on around here)

Thanks for signing up for the fall CSA season! Since the first week of a new CSA season always has a long, detailed newsletter, I will keep this update brief:

We continue to get storage crops out of the ground, washed, dried, packaged, and stored in the root cellar for late fall and winter use. We have been staying on top of the weeding in the winter greens in the high tunnels. The site work for the new solar/equipment shed is finished. The garlic seed is all cracked and ready to plant. The peppers keep producing like a dream, because it’s late October and we haven’t gotten a hard frost yet.

Have a great week!

-ESF Team: Kara, Ryan, Molly, Cindy, Grace, Taylor, Morgan, and Katie

This Week's Recipe: Blistered Cherry Tomato Pasta