Mushrooms are BACK!

Hi Everyone. We have been so happy to be offering mushrooms again at our markets! We worked so hard in the begginning of September preparing for the October mushroom harvest. We now are starting to have the usual cool weather abundance of oyster mushrooms and we will have them until about May. Once it gets even cooler we will start experimenting with shiitakes so hopefully we will be offering those around the New Year.

Sugar Baby Watermelons came and left in a hurry. We had a limited, but plentiful amount and definetly plan to grow more next year. They were the perfect size and very sweet with a classic watermelon flavor. Andrew had to protect them from a determined pack of coyotes who loved to steal from the melon patches. He even slept in a tent in the field a few nights! The things we do for love (of produce, hah!).

Our tomatoes are back again for round two! The seedlings we planted back in April got a flush of monsoon tomatoes. These plants are working so hard and producing super sweet amazing heirlooms once again. We have been getting tangled in the unruly overgrown rows trying to pick each ripe tomato. I figure I eat about half as many as I bring to the market when I'm harvesting them :)

The butternut squash have been a great fall crop for us. They have been selling great at the market and we have plenty of them curing for the holiday season. I'm thinking butternut squash soup, mashed butternut squash with herbs, stuffed butternut squash with greens and sausage. Yum!

At the end of September I went home to Long Island to visit my family. While I was gone Andrew was a complete rock star and planted most of our late fall and winter crops. He planted turnips, radishes, arugala, braising greens (kale, tatsoi, mustard greens), beets and salad greens. When I got back it was time to weed all of the new rows. I cannot wait until the summer grass goes dormant!

'Tis the season for gophers! These little guys will burrow below a row of perfectly formed root vegetables and pull them right down into their hole. Then can desimate a whole row in a matter of days. Time to get our battle gear on ;)

Well that is all for now. Hope to see you all at the markets! -Nicole & Andrew