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Hutten Family Farm Newsletter for Sunday Sep 25, 2011

     Well it is Sunday evening and I feel lazy. I stayed home from the brewery market yesterday because I have so many things here that need to be harvested. I woke early and loaded trucks for both Halifax and Wolfville. I drove Katherine (oldest daughter) to the Wolfville market and returned to the farm by 8:30 to start picking apples. Somehow I convinced myself that a little nap was an awesome idea and I pretty much slept all day. Not a productive weekend. 
     We have begun to harvest some winter squash now. Our squash crop is one of the smallest ever. Overall we have about a 25% crop of squash. On a positive note you will not have to eat as much squash as last winter. Crops like beets, carrots, parsnips, onions, leeks, shallots, cabbages, radishes, and sweet potatoes look very good by comparison. We are picking a lot of broccoli and cauliflower right now. These will be quite common in the boxes over the next couple of months. I picked a handful of brussels sprouts this afternoon. They are still a bit small but they look good. Looks can be deceiving. Brussels sprouts are a vegetable that I really do not like although this narrow-minded prejudice never prevents me from making CSA customers eat them. Strangely, they are very popular.
     Fresh string beans are likely in the boxes again. We have large plantings of beans right now and they are excellent. Enjoy them while they last; we are now into a season where a single cold night could finish them off for the season. I plan to put a few baby eggplants in the boxes as well this week. Eggplants are another vegetable that produced very poorly this year, although the quality of the crop was good. Debra and I love baby eggplants fried in a little oil with lots of ginger root and garlic and a bit of soy sauce. I have come to realize that I just like eating and sleeping more than working. 
     We should have enough tomatoes for the boxes  for at least a couple more weeks. I am beginning to clean tomato plants out of the coldframes now. They would still produce nice tomatoes for another month or six weeks but I need the space for winter greens. We will work mushroom compost into the soil in each coldframe and than plant them to spinach, arugula, and other cold tolerant greens. I could have begun this on Saturday but I was napping.
     Have a good week.      ted



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