We're about to begin the 24th week of the main CSA season. With the decreasing amount of daylight and the lowering temperatures we're spending slightly less time out and about in the fields, but we did only just plant our last crop of the season: the 2015 garlic. With the help of about 25 CSA members last weekend and another 10 or so at the farm today, we planted approximately 12,000 cloves of garlic and covered the entire patch with straw mulch.

With the help of about 35 workshift attendees, the 2015 garlic patch is planted and protected with straw mulch.

Now that we're finished planting for this year our remaining tasks include harvesting the remainder of the storage crops like cabbage, rutabaga, kohlrabi, radishes, and turnips; the twice weekly harvesting of fresh greens and lettuces for the shares; protecting crops from the cold with row cover, hoops, and sandbags; and cleaning up, making repairs, and getting ready for farm hibernation. Dana and I took a mini trip away from the farm to attend a wedding and saw our first snowfall of the season while in the mountains of North Carolina. Our employees and community members took care of the farm while we were away, harvesting produce and managing distribution as well as protecting the plants with hoops and row cover and doing other farm chores. Getting away from the farm anytime during the growing season is a big challenge and this time had the added stress of protecting crops and getting ready for cold and blustery weather. Fortunately for the farm and CSA members we can rely on a good crew to take care of the plants and farm for us. Thank you Anchor Run employees and helpers!

Harvest #24 (Week B) should include lettuce, beets, potatoes, cabbage, napa Chinese cabbage, kale, garlic, kohlrabi, greens mix, broccoli raab, arugula, chicory, celery, and salad turnips. Some items will be a choice. U-pick this week should include frost hardy perennial herbs.

Registration for the 2014 Winter CSA and the 2015 Main Season CSA is available for current farm members on the Member's Page of our website. To sign up, simply log in and click on the 'Join' button on the right hand side of the page and follow the few steps. The Winter CSA is a 6-week (for now) season extension CSA with cold hardy greens such as arugula, greens mix, lettuces, chard, chicories, and kale; root crops like radishes, turnips, kohlrabi, rutabaga, and beets; as well as certain storage crops like garlic, winter squash, celeriac, and cabbage. Harvests are very similar to those at the end of the Main Season, and will begin following the final week of the 2014 Main Season, and will run through the last week of December. Pick ups are on Tuesdays from 1-8 PM. The 2015 Main Season CSA should once again last 26 weeks from May to November. Prices for the Main Season, the 12th CSA season, remain unchanged, but we have removed the $5 discount for making one payment instead of two due to some confusion during the sign up process. When you sign up, a $200 deposit or full payment is due to secure your membership. Registration for non-members will begin later in the fall, probably in December. E-mail us if you have any questions.

Full shares and Week B half shares, your last pick up will either be Monday, November 17, or Thursday, November 20. Week A half shares, your last pick up will either be Monday, November 10, or Thursday, November 13.

Now that we are fully into fall weather, with very chilly, frosty mornings, and shorter days and cooler evenings, my cooking style has definitely changed this past week. Here is some of what I did with my harvest:

Kale, escarole, celery, leeks, garlic - made a sort of minestone soup, minus the tomato. This one started with Italian sausage, then a sauté of veggies, addition of stock, white beans and then greens at the end. It is a big pot, so I get to share with others!

Fennel, potatoes - made a pork roast in the oven. It had a rub that included ground up fennel seeds and then I used the fennel bulbs that I had cut up and put on the bottom of a roasting pan, using it as a "bed" for the roast. I put carrots and potatoes around it and then roasted until done. The fennel ended up beautifully braised and the meal was perfectly complemented with some homemade applesauce.

Bok Choy - made the Spicy Roasted Bok Choy from this website. I used some of the marinade to flavor shrimp that I stir fried. It was a healthy, easy meal.

Broccoli raab, garlic - I really like broccoli raab with pork. So, I heated up the leftover pork from my roast and then prepared the broccoli raab in the classic Italian way with sauted garlic and red pepper flakes. When finished, I grated some parmesan cheese on top.

Salads - About 3 nights this past week I had leftovers from a big cooking binge last weekend. Nothing "freshens" leftovers like a big salad - I used different combo's of the greens from the farm: mixed greens, lettuce, endive, romaine. Added different ingredients, including nuts, dried cranberries, apple pieces, pears, and/or goat or blue cheese, and different dressing variations - some with shallots, some with honey - the combinations are almost endless, and once you get into the habit of making your own dressings, it becomes second nature. Enjoy!

Is anyone feeling a little overwhelmed by all the veggies? With some planning, you can de-stress over the amount of veggies and have farm ingredients for months to come.

Maybe you have noticed Derek mentioning the harvest of storage crops over the past few weeks. The items he is talking about are cabbage, beets, kohlrabi, salad turnips, garlic, potatoes, winter squash and even leeks. Keeping that in mind, when you get home with your bounty, separate it and store it according to how long it will keep:

Potatoes, winter squash, garlic, onions - they should not be refrigerated, so I currently have them in a couple of boxes in my garage. Once it gets too cold out there, I can just pick up the boxes and move them to a better spot, such as the basement.

Cabbage, beets, kohlrabi, radishes, turnips, leeks - I know that these will keep for weeks when stored in the refrigerator. I am fortunate to have an extra fridge to store things. I put these veggies in the crisper drawers in my extra fridge. I will then take the oldest cabbage, leeks, and anything else I think I may want to cook in the coming week into the main kitchen fridge.

Lettuces, broccoli raab, broccoli, cauliflower, greens mix, endive (chicories), bok choy, etc - I put them on the shelves in the extra fridge. If there is anything from this group left from the past week, I bring it into the kitchen fridge, knowing that it will need to be used in the next day or so.

I have found that by breaking the harvests down into these groupings, the quantity seems to be much more manageable. I can concentrate on using the items in the kitchen fridge first. Yesterday, I saw I had a bunch of kale and escarole from the previous week and although they still looked fresh, I didn't want them to stay in the fridge for much longer and made a plan to use them. Of course, I keep my mind and eye on the veggies that are stored in the drawers: kohlrabi and radishes and salad turnips and celery are snacked on for lunches, beets roasted about every other week, cabbage made into something about every 10 days, and so on.

So, how do you use your harvest? Email me at lindadansbury@Comcast.net