Pablito .... 

Summer’s over, September is here, and we are...sending you some of the best CSA boxes of the summer.  For years, September has been one of the more challenging months for us to put together a diverse, interesting box of produce for you.  This year, the culmination of several years of work and a few strokes of good luck have changed that.

GREEN BEANS & EDAMAME
For years, we have been trying to grow green beans as a summer vegetable, shooting for a season lasting from June through August.  They seemed to do well in early summer, but then didn’t want to produce in the extreme heat.  Beginning two years ago, we discovered that beans planted in mid-summer and harvested in early fall produced much better.  Last year we pushed the envelope a bit and found that we could plant beans as late as mid-August — the same time we begin planting our first cabbage, broccoli, beets, and carrots — and harvest them until the first frost in November or even December.

The final step in this progression came this summer, when several plantings of green beans that should have been harvested in mid-summer simply got fried.   Right next to them, though, we had planted a new variety of edamame soybeans that seems to thrive in the heat.  In fact, the hotter the weather, the more the edamame seemed to produce.  On the other hand, the edamame field we harvested for your boxes this year was already slightly stunted from the cooler temperatures of the last two weeks, and produced far fewer beans.

Our bean solution is at hand:  We will harvest green beans for a month or so in early summer, then switch to edamame for the heat of mid-summer.  Sometime around Labor Day, we will begin the transition back to green beans, and these will be a prominent part of your fall boxes — as they were last year.

APPLES AND ASIAN PEARS
While we have always tried to supply you with apples from other organic growers, from now on in the fall we will be harvesting our own apples and Asian pears.  If the supply is short, as it has been several years in the past, we can now blame our own incompetence instead of someone else’s.

Apples and pears remain the most difficult fruit crops to grow organically — especially in Winters.  An ocean of walnuts hosts an enormous population of coddling moths every year, and our little apple orchard is like a tropical island paradise to them.  We will use every tool at our disposal to keep them out, but there will be years when they will win the fight.

In years like this one, though, we will have a steady supply of Asian pear varieties from late August until mid-winter.   They are all crisp and tasty, although some are definitely more flavorful than others.  We are still learning the varieties ourselves; as soon as we get a handle on it, we’ll start sharing what we’ve learned.

While the apple section of the orchard is smaller, the trees are big and capable of producing lots of fruit.  In addition to the Gravensteins, we will be harvesting Granny Smiths in another two weeks, and Fujis in late fall.  We’re not sure how long the fruit will last — there is significant worm damage this year, and it may get worse before harvest ends.

GRAPES
The September harvest varieties of grapes may end up being the crown jewel of our fall CSA boxes.  I say this on a week when there are no grapes in the boxes.  However, we have enough grapes left on the vines to feature them in another two weeks of boxes — and most of the vineyard is just one year old!   In another year, the vines will likely produce twice as many grapes.  It’s easy for me to imagine that in the future, they will last well into October.
 Of course it’s not just the fact that we have grapes in the boxes, but the fact that they are wonderful.  The two varieties we planted have turned out to be big, flavorful, and very productive.

PEACHES?
Believe it or not, I had almost forgotten until this year, but the peach orchards we planted three years ago included several September varieties.  And our new peach orchard has quite a few fall harvest trees, too.

So here we are in the second half of September with a nice final hurrah to the peach season.  As the young peach orchard continues to mature, the harvest will certainly increase.  In the near future, fall CSA boxes may have more fruit, and more variety of fruit, than the summer boxes!
 Growing perennial crops is a glacially paced endeavor in our high speed world.  Produce from all four seasons is available at any time of year, 24/7.  So I hope there’s still something special for you all in knowing that the long-term projects that we undertake here at the farm eventually...bear fruit… for you.  They would certainly be far more risky for us if we didn’t have you, our customers, coming back month after month and year after year.  Thanks.
 

IN YOUR BOXES
Edamame in this week’s boxes are the last of the season.  In fact, there were just barely enough for the Medium and Large boxes.  Thanks to a new variety that grows and produces very well in our area, the soybeans have been a very nice crop to grow this year.  We have enjoyed having them in the boxes — and in our kitchens — during the summer, and we hope you have, too.  Next week:  Green beans for everyone.

Peaches in today’s boxes are a big late season variety called Carnival.  Unlike summer peaches that soften fully when ripe, these peaches soften closer to the pit while staying pretty firm on the outside.  They will give just slightly to finger pressure, but a knife will go right to the pit easily.  Ripen at room temperature.

Canary melons in today’s boxes are also firm on the outside when fully ripe.  The key is color:  A bright yellow rind indicates a fully ripe melon.  Ripen at room temperature, then refrigerate to prevent overripening.

 We are currently in a big rush to plant, plant, plant for the winter.  Beginning in mid-October, you will begin to see the first salad greens in your boxes, as well as broccoli and beets.  Our first two plantings of carrots were annihilated by the mid-summer heatwave, so sadly, our first carrots may not come out of the ground until December.  Other sources of beta-carotene will be plentiful, though.  We are in the middle of our butternut squash harvest, and our sweet potato field has been mowed and is being irrigated in preparation for what looks to be a bumper harvest.  Pistachios have been harvested — also a bumper crop this year — and walnuts are almost ready.

 In the meantime, enjoy the last tasty gasps of summer’s produce.
 

Thanks,
  Pablito

Recipes............................

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Winters, CA 95694
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