Abbe Hills Farm CSA

Greetings shareholders,

This week, we have potatoes, onions, squash, probably a few skinny leeks that escaped harvest this summer, a little bit of spinach, daikon radishes, and some beets.  The greens will be head lettuce, Chinese cabbage, kale, mustard greens, beet tops, arugula, and some red leaf lettuce.  Vegetable pickup this week is on Tuesday, November 10, 3:30 until 6:00, in the big shed.  Bring a flashlight if you are coming later than 5:00 so you can get back to your car safely.

The spinach is that I had planted for harvest for the regular CSA in October.  It's finally making some bigger leaves, so we've been harvesting some of it.  It has been helped by the cold and is very sweet, so use it in a salad if you can.  Picking spinach is a VERY slow job; I'm not sure how we ever managed to provide it for everybody in years past.  The beets will be some that we harvested from the main garden this summer.  They've been in the cooler because, once again, I wasn't able to get enough from the fall crops to give at least a pound to everybody in the regular CSA.  Beets can be stored for a long time, but since I've done the storage for you, I urge you to eat these soon.  Chinese cabbage, arugula, and head lettuce will be from the hoophouse.  All of the other greens are from the outside garden.

We had a great week of warm weather and are looking forward to another one.  My corn was combined on Thursday and is stashed away in the big bin and in wagons.  It had not dried completely in the field and was wet, 22% moisture, but that turns out to be the driest corn Ralph Jordan had combined up until then.  I've got the big fans running to dry it further, to about 15%, so that it will store well.  Moist corn and sunny winter days can be a recipe for mold to grow in the kernels of stored corn.  Molds are a concern for me because they decrease seed quality, but they also can create toxins that are very, very dangerous in corn that will be used for food and feed.  Moldy corn can't be sold, or is discounted heavily.  So, we farmers are running the fans and dryers as fast as we can.  The warm, dry air is a real blessing because it helps drying to continue for the corn in the field, and can actually reduce the moisture level in the stored corn if it is pushed through the pile long enough.  My little operation here is using electricity as fast as we can, but my bill is likely only $30 or $40 per day.  I can't imagine what kinds of big electric bills the crop farmers are accumulating.  Once again, I'm glad I raise vegetables.

Again, remember that you pick up vegetables this week on Tuesday, November 10, 3:30 until 6:00.  Next week, we'll be back on the Wednesday night schedule.  I'll be in Ames all day this Wednesday.  Thanks for giving me the flexibility to attend my meeting.  One thing I am trying to arrange for my trip is to pick up about 50 lbs of seed garlic.  As you remember, I gave up on planting garlic and gave you the seed to eat in October.  Well, guess what.  Now the ground is fit for planting, and we are looking at a dry week, and now I want to plant some for the 2010 season.  The problem is, of course, there is almost no seed left in Iowa because it's all been planted or eaten.  So, I'm calling all my buddies, trying to get a bit here and a bit there.  Hopefully, I'll get enough and get it planted and we'll have some fresh garlic next summer, or at least some scapes.

See you tomorrow evening,

Laura