CSA Farm Share 2009: Week 16 and then some

[surrealestate]

Last week, Parker Farm said that due to this year's horrid conditions, shares would have to be canceled for the rest of the season. I was, of course, quite sad over the news, but given the situation all over the state, it wasn't entirely surprising. A few days later, Steve changed his mind and announced that, with some small changes and understanding that hauls would likely be smaller, things would, in fact continue. Yay! Too bad he didn't just start out by saying there'd be no drop-off that week, which would have saved an assortment of annoyance on various sides.

Ironically, despite that, last week was the biggest total haul of the year, because my share partner and I went out to Red Fire on Monday to harvest and came home with a metric buttload, then I helped Steve a bit at the farmer's market Saturday which yielded as much as I could carry on my bike. A lot of CSA members had stopped by to say hi and offer support. It was good to see. And because Steve is awesome, he sent us all home with extras.

The official drop-off:

• [no Parker drop-off]
  --
• 1 lb sweet peppers
• 4 small hot peppers
• 2 eggplant
• 1 bunch kale
• 1 head lettuce
• 1 bunch dill
• 1 small winter squash
• 1 small head cabbage
• 11 oz broccoli
• 1 lb summer squash
  --
• 1 lb peaches
• 1/2 peck apples

Harvest at the farm included four qts of cherry tomatoes, 4+ qts yellow and green beans, 2 qts raspberries, dozens of hot peppers, and over 30 pounds of tomatillos.

Farmers market yield included 2 bunches arugula, 2 of Asian turnips, a gaggle of purple-top turnips and parsnips, 1 bunch cilantro, 1 head lettuce, and an embarrassing quantity of hen of the woods mushrooms.

And on the food preservation front:
Canned: tomatillo salsa verde, more tomatillo salsa verde, roasted red pepper spread
Dried: tomatoes, apples, apple powder, oregano, parsley, rosemary, green & yellow beans, mushrooms
Froze: blackberries

I hope everyone who went for it had an easy fast (mine wasn't too bad).

Comments

[dani-namaste.livejournal.com]

I can ask Nick where he got the pressure canner that we use - I am pretty sure he got it from Amazon. If you want an old-school waterbath canner, try Benjamin Franklin in Cushing Square (Belmont, near me). They have tons of canning supplies.

[kissoflife.livejournal.com]

Cool, asking would be nice and yay, a new place to explore.

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

Tags in Porter also has everything you need for canning. But I still anti-recommend buying a boiling water "canner". A pressure canner is a nice thing, but more expensive and not necessary for the most common kinds of canning (tomatoes, fruit, pickles).

If you get a pressure canner, though, you can also use it for BWB stuff.