Frist things first - Please be sure to return ALL of your bags next week.  Next week will be the last week for this season's CSA.  Next week, we'll be delivering the shares in brown paper bags.  Thank you very much for your cooperation on this and also for each of you participating in the local food chain with Parker Produce.

It's hard to believe the season is coming to a close.  I simply cannot remember where the summer went.  Seems like just yesterday I was putting black plastic on the mound of snow over the compost pile to melt it and then thaw the top layers of compost.  Now I'm getting ready to till in the gardens to plant the winter's cover crop and green manure. 

At any rate, I was able to take a break from the harvest today to catch Lizzie in the pumpkin pile.  John piles pumpkins that are for sale from his patch in front of the barn and Grammy Susie and Emily came out for a photo-op.  I had my camera so I joined the fun.  Here she is discovering a pie pumpkin we put in her lap.  What a cutie.

On to your share this week.  You'll find the first of the winter squash which I was able to get from the field this week.  In fact, I spent the
entire day on Tuesday harvesting all of the winter squash.  To the right, I have posted a photo showing how they have all taken over the milk house.  Those of you collecting your share from Newport, please be careful when you walk in as there are squash EVERYWHERE!

Here at the left, I've posted a photo of spaghetti squash.  If you've never had one, you're in for a real treat.  This is such an interesting variety.  I suggest a very easy way to cook them.  I'm sure there are other ways, but we cook ours by cutting them in half the long way and gutting them.  That means remove the seeds and the stringy part that surrounds the seeds.  Then place the squash with the newly opened part up on a cookie sheet.  Place in the oven at about 450 degrees and bake for about 30 minutes.  Remove the squash and use a fork to scrape the middle of the squash.  You'll see that it comes apart in what looks to be like spaghetti.  You can actually scrape right down to the skin.  The way we eat it in our house is to simply put some marjorine and salt and pepper on it.  Very delicious.


Full shares will also find a baby hubbard squash.  I've included a link that explains a bit about hubbard squash.  You will have to scroll down quite a way to get to this particular squash.  As you can see, there are several ways to prepare it.  Most people tend to complain that it's too watery.  That's a sure sign that they didn't prepare it correctly.  I have a friend who says that if he and his wife find a vegetable they don't like, they simply haven't found a good recipe or way to cook it. 

I also included a butternut squash.  The easiest way to cook these is to cut them into quarters and put them into a large stock pot with water and boil/steam them.  You only need enough water to ensure that it doesn't completely boil away.  This is the most 'traditional' of the squash in your share.  That only means it's the one everyone knows.  It's great but I hope everyone will also try the others because they are also great.

I am also pleased that this week I was able to include some things in the greenhouse that I planted for fall harvest.  Beets and beet greens and a new lettuce/greens mix that I'm calling Autumn Harvest Mesclun.  This mesclun includes the following ingredients.  Deer Tongue Lettuce, Waldmann's Dark Green Lettuce, Baby Tricolor Amaranth, Baby Marimba Lettuce, and baby Ruby Red and Golden Sunrise Chard.  I think it's quite good and the coloring is very nice on a plate.

I also included more Golden and Ruby Chard this week.  Also, Broccoli and potatoes.  The Potatoes include Yukon Gold (the brown skinned) and Red Gold.  Emily and I have discovered a great way to cook potatoes.  Clean and cut them up into small cubes and place in an over safe casserole dish.  Drizzle them in Olive Oil (I use a lot and don't have a quantity) and then sprinkle with sea salt, freshly ground black pepper and any other herbs you like.  I cut up fresh garlic and sometimes use fresh or dried parsley.  Place in the oven for 30-35 minutes or until they are soft.  Delicious!

...overtime in fact.  I'm glad to have the computer back in time for this post since the harvest was so full today.  I've been harvesting all week and last night I was bagging until about 11 pm.  I woke up in time to watch the sunrise this morning and get back out there to pick the more delicate items like lettuce and spinach which needs to be harvested in the morning before the heat of the day descends into the leaves.  Here are a couple of photos I snapped. 
                    
I got to take a coffee break to warm up since the weather is turning colder and the fields were drenched with autumn dew.  I went in and stood in front of the wood stove and got to see my wonderful daughter and immediately became jealous of all the z's she was grabbing.  She did come out to visit me with momma later though.  I was able to show her some of the sunflowers that have just bloomed recently.  I know some of you had expressed an interest in purchasing some of the sunflowers once they were available.  As you can see, they are here.
         
And now onto the information about what's available in this week's share.  You'll find the last of the basil.  Now that the weather is turning colder it's basically anyone's guess when it all turns to blackened stalks of mush.  Being a native of the climate of southeast Asia, it doesn't do well in our wonderful autumn temps (I love Fall by the way and even though the garden switches to cover crops for the winter and the harvest is over, I'm looking forward to the pumpkins and apple cider, colors of foliage and all that comes with it).  As you may notice, your basil may have a few black spots on some of the leaves.  I've included a photo with an example of the wilt.  This is a wilt that affects basil on a regular basis once it gets to a certain stage of growth.  There is nothing wrong with the basil though.  Simply don't use those leaves that are affected.  This is another example of the waste of the industrial food system.  Look at all the basil you received that is still perfectly fine.  In the industrial, global food system, it would have been thrown away at some point in the chain.  That doesn't take into account all of the chemicals that were sprayed on the basil to keep the wilt down to a minimum.  Just not using the affected leaves seems a better way to do things to me.
I've also included parsley this week.  I may have more of that before the final week since parsley is incredibly cold hardy.  In fact, it will last through the winter underground and sprout up in the spring to produce seeds.  I hope everyone will have an opportunity to tie up some parsley to dry for the winter.
Last week everyone had some broccoli in their share.  I hope there will be more for everyone before the season ends.  Broccoli is another frost hardy autumn vegetable which actually gets better after being hit with a light frost.  It's just a question of how quickly the broccoli replenishes itself as side shoots. 

Also last week were the first of the apples.  This is something I was hoping to throw in at the end of the season.  These are wild apples that came from a tree along one of the stone walls at the farm.  This tree was probably propagated by a bird dropping a seed a hundred years ago.  This winter I hope to have the time to do some pruning to bring the apples into even better shape for next year.  Even still, they are still quite good this year.  I hope everyone enjoys them in this week's share too.

A couple of weeks ago you got some chard in your share.  I hope everyone liked it and I hope to have some more in the future.  There is enough now to ensure that everyone has more of both colors.
Also this week are some of the shell beans I tried growing this year.  I'm very pleased with their turnout.  You can see from this photo which ones in the bag are the shell beans.  They are Vermont Cranberry and they are delicious.  As you can see from this additional photo, they are the same color inside.  To cook shell beans you need some time so I suggest a weekend dinner.  They take a while to cook and you really need to stay in the kitchen to ensure they don't burn.  This is information I gathered from the best cook I know...my mom.  I love to cook and I get that from her.  My father is also an avid gardener and my love of shell beans comes from his side of the family.  Eating them this week was one of those pleasant memories you get thinking of grandmothers and great grandmothers.  I called my mother to ask about preparations for these wonderful legumes.  She gave me some great advice and Emily and I had some this week.  The flavor and smells brought me back to my childhood and the kitchens of my Grammy Phyllis and Great Grammy Dow.
To prepare, remove the beans from the shell as I show at the right.  Take out any that haven't fully developed the nice pink lines and hue.  If you don't do this, the likelyhood of burning some is apparently much higher as these beans cook faster than the fully matured beans.  
Place the beans in a small saucepan and just cover them with water.  Place them on the stove on your smallest burner, on the smallest flame and heat slowly, stirring occasionally.  It should take about 45 minutes to an hour for the beans to reach the nice soft consistency you're looking for.  The water will boil away so be careful to watch for that.  You may need to add water if they aren't done cooking.  Test the beans for softness by tasting one.  When they are soft and cooked, remove them from the heat.  The remaining water is quite good as it contains all of the starches from the beans.  I simply make a sort of gravy out of this, margarine (or butter if you eat it) and some salt and pepper but you could easily apply any spice to these beans.  You can eat them plain too since they are wonderful just by themselves.
The rest of the things in this week's share are things that you've seen before so I won't go into detail about it.  If anyone has any questions, please let me know.  Also, I still have tons of cukes and will have until the frost comes.  So far only one member has taken me up on the extra cukes for pickles and I threw in some dill for her too.  If you would like extra cukes in next week's share for pickling, just let me know and I'll throw some in your bag.  Until then, enjoy this great weather and be careful out there since school is back in session and children are catching buses at all hours of the morning and afternoon.  I hope to see everyone at the peace rally in Bangor tomorrow at the Paul Bunyon statue at 1 pm.  Also, the Common Ground Fair is next weekend and for more information you can check out MOFGA's website.  There is a link on our links page at www.parkerproduce.org.  I hope everyone gets a chance to check it out.  Talk to you soon.