Happy Thanksgiving!
Thanksgiving is a quintessentially agricultural holiday. In Canada - prior to our ability to import anything from anywhere at anytime - people may have rejoiced from a bountiful harvest, or perhaps just been thankful for reaping anything at all.
Today we're grateful to not be mortally dependent on our own harvest. We have the privileged of planting and toiling and harvesting with a safety net. If our crops fail, we may be saddened, set back, and otherwise discouraged, but we won't go hungry. If we injure ourselves, we're able to seek and benefit from advanced and exceptional health care. And in 2020, when a pandemic disrupts the gears of society and civilization, we're able to do our work as close to home as is possible.
Despite this year's destabilizing circumstances, we hope you have a happy and relaxing thanksgiving.
2020 CSA Survey
This past Wednesday we sent our CSA members with an invitation to complete a survey and provide feedback about the 2020 Season. So far we've have about half of our members complete the survey - thanks so much!
There's no deadline for completing the survey, so if you haven't yet, or need to wait until a later date, that's perfectly fine. The link to the survey can be found in the email we sent with the subject "CSA Program Survey".
Pumpkin
Another week, another winter squash. This week's shares will include a Pumpkin. These pumpkins have been a long time coming. Started indoors back in May, transplanted to the field a few weeks later, and then harvested many months later.
This year's pumpkin variety is what's considered a "pie pumpkin". Not a huge jack-o-lantern type pumpkin but a smaller, sweeter variety that's ideal for baking. This variety is brand new to us but we're excited to try our own homemade pumpkin pie this thanksgiving weekend.
One challenge we faced this year was some form of transplant shock among the pumpkin plants that we didn't see with any of our other squash. Only about a fifth of our transplants actually survived, it was quite disappointing!
Luckily we take a fairly analytical approach to risk mitigation here. We model for losses under a wide range of regimes and plan our crops so we can still enjoy some level of success in the face of problems such as this. Everyone gets a pumpkin, but in a perfect season, we would have had many more to give and donate.
This Week's Share
Lettuce
Salad Mix
Beets
Bunching Onion
Bell Peppers
Carrots
Microgreen Mix (Pea, Clover, Broccoli Raab)
Pumpkin
Acorn Squash
Parsley