the hand that rocks the cradle: CSA 2014 weeks 15, 16, 17 and 18

Jeff shows off a pepper he grew himself as his tee-shirt salivates

Um so, there's been so much food it's all a blur of picking and preserving. I took some pictures, but the fact is, I've lost track. Which is a shame because I was trying to document this all for my refrence next year and so that when I'm suffering seasonal affective disorder in the sunless winter months I can look back at these images and sob. (You're welcome, future me. Luckily, my future self can't send messages back...)

***UPDATE! I FOUND MISSING PHOTOS! BELOW IS THE REAL WEEK 15 and I've updated this post to reflect the correct week numbers for the weeks that followed!

Leaks, greens, parsley, radish, potatoes!

tomatoes, sweet peppers, more tomatoes, apples, asian pears, eggplant, green beans, lemon-cukes, 6 ear of corn, snacking tomatoes

That was everything more or less (probably less than everything) crammed together on the table for week 16 (pick up on Fri 9/19). Likely because I was out picking until dark and too tired to be artistic in the arrangement. Bucket of green beans, onion bag full of green toms,bag of green toms, shopping bag of ground cherries, 5 lbs apples, handful of eggplant, white carrots, sweet peppers bag in the back, spicy peppers in the front (these went through the food dryer) 12 ears of corn, 4 onions, lots of lemon cukes, and three 'lil crockneck squashes that never got to grow up to be real zucchini. I think I put herbs in the food dryer at this point. But it was probably lavender and rosemary. Lovely smelling.

I also think that was the same day I took my mom along, and I had a really great time spending the waning afternoon with her! She commented on what a great concept the whole community supported agriculture model is. I harvested a little less than usual (read, only like, four sackfuls...) because I was just tired of all the preserving and had a backlog and limited fridge space and encouraged her to make up the slack for me. She filled up a laundry basket and some bags. Later on when she dropped me off and went home, she texted me to say she didn't know how I did it, once you get home with all the food and have to put it away and process it. I wonder if she's considering membership anymore...

Week 17 (9/26), I have NO produce pictures, seemingly. But I do have this gem taken on the 27th.

Penny in the garden picking calendula heads

With help from Aunt Kalah, we took the kids the next morning, although I didn't get as many pictures as I wanted because we spent much of the time taking kids to the porta johns. A disproportionate allotment of my life is spent in search of appropriate places for toddlers to relieve themselves. But I did snap one pic of Penny picking flowers. Why did I want their heads popped off? Because they're medicinal and I don't have room on my counters which are filled with jars and produce all the time anyway. Also because toddlers don't understand why you want stems on flowers anyway. So we found a way this works out for everyone, between potty visits. Kalah brought me back again in the afternoon on Saturday and I pulled in a few more bags of beans and green tomatoes and more lavender and rosemary to keep my kitchen smelling heavenly.

I also suspect that these next three photos I took of some of the remaining mostly undocumented haul from week 17, representing a little part of it. (week 17 was the last of the sweet peppers, had to pick them small to get any before they were rotting)

Week 18 (10/3- 10/4) and the farm was rockin' with apple season visitors. Including these dogs in their awesome auto.

I feel sad when I see people going through the CSA garden that they paid for and looking around sadly and leaving empty handed. They can't find a red tomato or a full sized bell pepper and they aren't moving leaves to see the beans and the squash and they don't know what to do with medicinal flowers and they are afraid to try a ground cherry. Sometimes people follow me because I'm coming out with buckets, and they check out where I was coming from to see where the big cache of food was hidden. Then I get to explain how to use the "over grown" beans for dried beans for cooking, or how to make tinctures. And why the lack of much heat in the daytime prevents the tomatoes from ripening outside before they rot so they're better ripened on the counter at this point.

Mostly green tomatoes, some eggplant and some zukes.

Those beans are so big and tough! how could you possibly eat them?? Mmm

Some of the herbs that weren't in the food dryer yet.

The store pick up for week 18: Turnips, Spaghetti Squash, Onions, Pears (2 Qt), 6 head of broccoli (they were giving it away!), Kale, bag of Leaf Lettuce, and 1.5 Lb of Bok Choi

5 Lb of apples picked on wk 18

Fairytale Pumpkin. Bought this at Nature's Pantry for just $7.50. I could have picked a bigger one, but it was all I could carry with one arm and my groceries. Next time I'll bring someone bigger than me... The kids are upset that it is living on the chair they want to sit in.

Calendula aka pot marigold

I've been sorting these to can the green beans, but have the kids shell the bigger ones for dried beans and running them through the food dryer. The pods are making great compost and I paid the kids quarters for their labor. I think we all made out on this.

This is what ground cherries look like when de-husked. Explaining their yummy sweet taste is significantly harder. I think they taste like pineapple a little, but Kalah disagrees. Tried to make them into jam but it seems a bit runny. Hoping the jars just need to set for a few days.....