Subject: Rainbow carrots in this week's CSA !! 09/07/2007 08:56:10 AM PST Hey everybody -- This mail is in 3 parts: this week's share, farming news, and "What Happens if I don't Pick up my Share?" 1. This week's share: This week's share will feature carrots in red, yellow, white and orange! Carrots are one of my favorite garden vegetables. Fresh they are so much better than what you get in the store, where they are usually dry and not so sweet. They're another crop I don't buy anymore for that reason, except at a farmers' market. It is my great pleasure to offer them to you this week! We'll also have Salad Mix, Beans, Summer Squash, Russian Kale, and heading Chicory if you're interested. As always, last minute additions can enter depending on what's ready. 2. Farming News: How 'bout this weather, eh? Pretty chilly for September! Benjamin -- Sunroot Gardens' booth cook -- and I have been working on recipes for green tomatoes that we'll be uploading to the website shortly, since that might be what we get this year! I have been checking on the pumpkins and winter squash and begun roguing (removing) small fruits to give the larger ones a better chance of maturing. Some of their vines are starting to die back now, which they do as they ripen. Has everyone been enjoying the Yard Long Beans? There's more this week, as this crop is at Peak right now, the latest maturing of the seven kinds of beans I've offered you this season. Beets are right around the corner, in golden, white, red and spiral-inside as rounds and in burgundy and yellow as "cylindra" shapes. Planted recently: more salad mix (I've hit every new moon since March!) and turnips. The turnips are golden, white, scarlet, and the traditional purple-top. These will come in at the end of this season's Spring/Summer/Fall share or at the beginning of the Winter Share. Being that it's September, I am thinking about Garlic Planting and Winter Cover Cropping, both of which start in October. I have a good local organic source for fava beans and clover for cover crops that I'll be going with for the third year. Much of the area I'm planting won't need cover as it has over-wintering veggies in it -- far more than I've ever planted before. I'm excited! 3. "What happens if I don't pick up my share?" It's summer, so people are going on camping trips, festivals, the beach, etc. If you won't be coming by on Saturday but still want your share, just give me a call: 503.686.5557. If I know that day I can easily package something up for you and hold it for later pick-up. I don't have the facilities to store a large amount of perishable food at my house, so I often distribute what's left at the end of Saturday that night or early on Sunday. If you call after this has happened, I can still put something together for you, but you might not get everything that was featured for the week. BUT, you might also get something that no one else got, due to more recent harvests, or harvests that didn't produce enough for everyone. SO, in this way, it is not necessarily disadvantageous to miss Saturday and call on, say, Monday. I know that's not the way these things are generally done, but it's how I've been doing them! So, long story short, if you're going to miss a pick-up, you can call on Saturday and you'll get the standard hand-out. If you miss and call later, you won't, but you'll probably be pleased with what you get anyway. Thanks so much! It's a pleasure being your farmer! xoxoxo Kollibri