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The weeds change with the seasons too.
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The first chickweed germinating in the cooler fall soil.
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What's happening on the farm right now:
The edition was written by Theo Gould.
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When I first started working on the farm in April, the sun rose with me every morning. Now when I wake, the stars are still shining bright in the sky. Just this morning I watched as Venus shone outside of my window and the moon hung half full. Twenty or so minutes later, the world was shrouded in fog, and soon after that, the sun arrived. Waking up in this way reminds me how much has changed since I got here, and how much will continue to change. Change is ever constant in all of our lives but working on a farm is a beautiful daily reminder that soon, it will all be different.
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I felt this awareness with startling clarity recently with our summer squash. Of all the crops we grow, summer squash is my least favorite. It is prickly, itchy unless you are covered head to toe, and very good at camouflaging the fruit among the plant. Since May we began every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday morning hauling bucket after bucket through dew-soaked fields, searching for summer squash. And I don’t even particularly like summer squash! Yet this was how we started our mornings, and even as I grumbled there was a certain comfort in the familiarity of putting on my long sleeve shirt and gloves and getting to work.
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Yesterday was our last harvest of summer squash. We have been talking for weeks that the end would be soon. I joked every time that it couldn’t come soon enough. Yet, when Alex casually remarked yesterday that we were done with summer squash, I experienced, to my utter bewilderment, sadness. How are we going to spend our mornings now?! (Weeding. There is always weeding). Had I known when I harvested squash last that it would have been the last time, would I have gone about it differently? Probably not. On the precipice of change, I found myself missing what was. There is comfort in the known.
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Even though the days are still very hot, autumn is on the horizon. The farm is reflecting that. Summer squash, cucumbers, and tomatoes are all slowing down or are finished. Our fall crops of kale, collards, and brassicas are ready for harvest or steadily growing. I have found that in between seasons can feel uncomfortable, when change is on the horizon but not quite here. I feel ready for summer to be over. I am yearning for cooler days and a slower pace, yet I am also already missing eating whole watermelons and sweating in my bed at night (well, maybe I won’t miss that so much).
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I find comfort in knowing that summer will come again. Before I know it, I will be sweating, although hopefully not harvesting summer squash. Other changes are less cyclical. A child moving out from home, grandparents aging, jobs ending. These changes often push us into spaces where there is a great unknown.
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Sometimes, it can be difficult to balance knowing that change is coming with the understanding that it is not here yet. For example, this internship will be done at the end of the season. I feel in me a panic to find what comes next. That change isn’t here yet, and there is still a good bit of the season left on the farm. This has left me feeling pulled in one direction while rooted in another. There is still so much to learn on the farm, and so many weeds to pull! But while there can often be great fear in the unknown, there can also be great wonder. I think the question is how to balance being present in a situation I know will soon change. For now, we mourn the end of summer squash as we must, and then, we move on to cooler seasons.
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A freshly weeded bed of carrots, one of many beds getting weeded this week.
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What's available in the store and at market this week?
All the winter squashes are ready to eat. The delicata and honeynut are lovely and our sweetest. Our two kabochas, sunshine and winter sweet, have dense smooth flesh, great for stews and pie. The acorn and jester roast up and taste like mashmellows. And you can't go wrong with the butternut. The fall greens are looking good as well, kales and collards, Swiss chard. Parsley and cilantro join the basil for our herb offerings. We have potatoes and onions. The colored peppers are sweet and juicy. Don't forget to roast a bunch of them to freeze for the winter. Shishitos, jalapenos. For salad greens, we have lettuce mix but are in between beds on the head lettuce. Hopefully we'll have more next week. Eggplants. I just made an eggplant dal from the NY Times with our fairytale eggplant and it was super creamy and delicious.
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What else? Beets with tops. The summer squash is over but we had a few cukes from the greenhouse today. Come early on Saturday and you might get some!
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North Asheville Tailgate Market hours are
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Saturdays 8am-12pm on the campus of UNC Asheville.
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River Arts District Farmers Market hours are
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Wednesdays 3-6pm at the Smoky Park Supper Club, 350 Riverside Drive.
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Jester, a mix of acorn and delicata.
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John's Recipe of the Week
| John Loyd is our dear friend, neighbor, CSA worker member and a gourmet Southern cook. His delightful observations on gardening and cooking appear here each week. |
“The most dangerous food is wedding cake.” James Thurber
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More information on storing your squash. We get several kinds of squash as they come into season since each has its own flavor. Delicata is the shortest lasting and needs watching. It will last a month or so. Acorn lasts a couple of months. To check acorn, cut it in two. If the seeds are gray, it’s not good. The butternut can last 3 or 4 months and also should be monitored to make sure they’re fresh. All of these squash can be frozen by blanching then storing in freezer bags.
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We like to cut the acorns in two and put in sherry and butter. Cook them in the oven on about 375 until they’re tender.
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Next week I’ll do another squash bisque that’s not quite so fancy.
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ROASTED ACORN SQUASH BISQUE – From “Pickles, Pigs and Whiskey” by John Currence, a book about his three favorite food groups. He started out at Crook’s Corner in Chapel Hill under the eye of Bill Neal and owns several restaurants including City Grocery in Oxford Mississippi. The cookbook is full of great recipes and most funny as well.
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Note: Butternut squash works just as well as acorn and is the squash we use in our bisque.
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ALSO NOTE: This is for 8 to 10 servings so you may want to make a little less. There is a lot of room to subtract, add and adjust the amounts of ingredients in this recipe.
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1 ½ cups small-diced yellow onion
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1 ½ tsp. Madras curry powder
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8 cups chicken stock – vegetable stock is OK and half shrimp stock if you choose
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½ cup packed fresh cilantro
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Heat the over to 375F. Cut the squash in half, oil the outside, sprinkle with salt and pepper. Place face down on parchment paper and bake until tender, about 45 minutes. Set aside to cool.
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While squash is roasting, in a soup pan sauté the onions and garlic until tender and starting to brown. With a large spoon scrape the squash flesh into the vegetables and stir well. Stir in the curry powder and Garam Masala and warm through. Add cognac and brown sugar and stir well. Add the stock and bring to boil, then lower the temp and cook for 45 minutes.
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In a blender or processor, whip the soup to a consistency you like. Stir in the cream and cilantro. Return to the stove and heat through. Finish with more salt and pepper to taste and serve.
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We all took Labor day off. Alex did some cliff jumping at Lake Fontana.
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Your farmers, Vanessa and Alex
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Love the flowers. Honor the vegetables. Let the weeds go!
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- Cheri Huber and Ashwini Narayanan
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