WHAT’S IN THE BOXThe following are the items being harvested this coming week. Items and quantities in your box may vary depending on your harvest day and the total harvest of each crop. The boxes are completely governed by what is ripe and ready for harvest and how much of it there is. We endeavour to divide the harvest fairly.

NOTES ON STORING THE HARVEST Please check out our Vegetable & Fruit page on the website to find tips on maximizing the life of your veggies.

NOTES ON THE SHARE Beans – 'Strike' green beans and 'Cherokee Wax' yellow ones. Baby Red Pak Choi – Making bunches of these lovely baby Asian greens. These are lovely stir fried whole. Broccoli – We continue checking for side shoots on the plants and while we wait for the next planting to head up. We hope to get a bunch of some side shoots in all the boxes. There may be green cabbage moth caterpillars...although we have only seen a few while harvesting. We have seen aphids, though and are trying to not harvest those heads. If you do spy them, you can submerse the head in a salty water (cover the heads with a plate to keep them under.) The aphids usually float up. If the aphids do take over the plantings, we will be tilling them in. 'Romanesco' Broccoli - This almost looks more like a cauliflower then a broccoli. It is tender and mild with a slightly nutty flavor and its lovely lime green spirals. Delicious raw. Use as you would cauliflower or broccoli. There are only a few plants heading up at this time but we hope the whole planting will in the next four weeks. Red Cabbage - 'Red Rock' Carrots – 'Scarlett Nantes' Bigger orange carrots this week. Cauliflower - The plantings of 'Green Macerata' and 'Sicily Purple' cauliflower are continuing to produce heads ready for harvest. These plantings are not coming on uniformly so we are uncertain how many heads will be ready each week. We are keeping a list of who has received one and who has not. There is also a planting of white cauliflower starting to head up. Not sure if it will make it for this week but we should be harvesting them in a week. Chillies - We will include chillies in your box if you request them. Please email us if you would like them. Coriander - Bunch in every box. Garlic – As we come to the end of this seasons shares, we are cleaning out the garlic we have. Two to three bulbs in every box. Red Onions - 'California Red'... again we do not want to store onions over the winter. So your share will include some extras. Parsley – Harvesting ‘Italian flat leaf’ and ‘Curly leaf’. Potatoes - Harvesting 'Nicola' and 'Desiree'. Sweet Corn - We have two rows of a sweet corn experiment that is ready for harvest. Some boxes received it last week. We are hoping there is enough to put in the boxes that did not receive it yet. Baby Tatsoi – A green Asian green. Again, we are harvesting them while they are tender and young. They only need a very light wilting. Turnips - 'Purple Top'.

We are cleaning up several plantings. Expect one of the following: Rocket Baby Silver Beet - 'Red Ruby'. This is a lovely alternative to lettuce as a green under roasted vegetable, a great addition to soups or just lightly steamed. English Spinach - 'Long Standing Bloomsdale' ‘Perpetual Gator’ Spinach – This is more a silver beet then a spinach and it is tender and slightly lemony.

NOTES ON WHAT'S GROWING This weeks harvest is a bit unpredictable. We know that the root crops, the Asian greens and the cabbage are ready and ample. But we are unsure of what the broccoli, cauliflower, bean and sweet corn harvest will be. In the fields, there are four varieties of lettuce (including raddichio, a mesclun planting, two 'Perpetual Gator' silverbeet plantings, another huge bok choy planting, Japanese turnips, rocket, english spinach, mustard greens, 'Mibuna' (another Asian Green), green cabbage, purple savoy cabbage, two white cauliflower plantings, sprouting broccoli planting, two more broccoli plantings, 200 feet of sugar snap peas in flower, our last sweet corn planting of 200 feet. We are hoping that all of these will finish growing/ripening and be ready for harvest in the next few weeks.

There was a light frost this week which touched the leaves of the pumpkin plants, the last zucchini planting and the tops of the bean plantings leaves. Luckily the beans were left untouched. Any basil left on the farm is showing the signs of the cold with black spots all through it. Most of the crops we are harvesting now are frost hardy. The cold just slows down the growth.

SEASONAL EATING - SHARING INSPIRATION Please keep sharing your inspirations. As we really shift away from the light hungry, heat loving plants, I feel grateful to have had a summer harvest which blessed us with pumpkins, beans, zucchini, cucumbers, tomatoes, corn - Which made the soil warm enough to grow our root crops for harvesting through the winter - and compost still rotting with the warmth. True seasonal eating has lost its definition, due partly to the fact that the grocery stores and fruit and vegetable shops seem to have everything, all the time. It is great to be a part of the re-awakening of eating with the season and I am enjoying compiling what that looks like for so many different families. So, please, delight us with your fig delicacies, your kale chips, your silver beet stews and your pumpkin, spinach and ricotta lasagnas!

RECIPE SUGGESTIONS Individual Turnip Gratins with Toast Fingers Tatsoi and Cabbage Stir Fry Bok Choy, Broccolini and Chicken in a Spiced Sauce and I found this recipe on the internet which would work well with 'Romanesco' and cauliflower, Quick Pickled Romanesco Broccoli

You can find more recipes by searching key ingredients on our website recipe page.