Beausol Gardens 2009 CSA newsletter #22

Greetings, Beausol locavores:
As I will explain below, we need to get ALL the reusable CSA bags back  this week.  Please be sure to return them to the drop site at Meredith BEFORE Tuesday, to Brian, or have them on your doorstep on Thursday  -  as the appropriate case may be.  Thank you.  I hope those of you who used them found them convenient and helpful.
The Crop Mob cavalry has come and gone.  They did a wonderful job of catching us up on a good bit of work.  The 25 or so young folks weeded and mulched five big perennial beds and planted garlic, lettuce and collards.  It is was a very good day that I thought we were going to have to cancel when the rain started last week.  (A total of an inch and three-quarters.)
I don't know if spiders hibernate, but the seemingly hundred-fold increase in webs I have noticed (and walked into!) the last couple of weeks indicate to me that they are "stocking up" or fattening up for the winter.  Maybe it's just the morning dew that makes them stand out like nets of diamonds hung throughout the farm.
Looking back at the last couple of years' newsletters for this time of year, solidified my memory that this year's gardens are slowing down MUCH faster than the last two.
We have considered how much produce we have distributed this year, how much produce is in the fields ready to harvest and what the weather and next week looks like.  And we have come to a very difficult  decision:
WE ARE CUTTING THE SEASON SHORT AND MAKING THIS WEEK'S DELIVERY THE LAST DELIVERY FOR THE 2009 MAIN SEASON CSA.
This week we will double up on as much stuff as we can. There will be lots of sweet potatoes and garlic to tide you over for a while. We will significantly boost the basil from last week's bounty by giving you a whole plant of basil!  You can dry the basil leaves or freeze the partially or completely prepared basil, as I mentioned last week. We will also cut bigger stems of the perennial herbs (oregano, thyme and rosemary) for you to dry for winter use.  Happily, the fall planted mustard greens for the winter shares is ready to thin sooner than I had expected so we will distribute those thinnings. There are still many peppers on the bushes, but they are not ripening nearly as fast they have been - as you may have noticed, so this week we will load you up with green peppers. (Then you will see, as good as the green peppers are, why I normally only harvest and eat ripe peppers instead of green peppers.)  The okra is still producing, though more slowly.  And the eggplants are putting out fewer and smaller fruit as you also may have noticed. And the last planting of edamame is finally ready to harvest.
As my beautiful bride, Deb, mentioned last week, we had an alien stalking our fields last week wielding ray guns: me.  Laser levels only work in low light so I had to wait until dusk to begin my work of  
analyzing the greenhouse site.... something I should have done BEFORE we planted some of the winter crops or ordered the greenhouse. The chosen site ended up having too much slope (not only do I have a  
terrible sense of time and distance, but apparently also of slope):  two feet end to end and two feet side to side - four feet of drop on one diagonal!  Bummer!   That just won't work.  So the best  
alternative site will cover part of beds already planted for the winter.  So, I need to harvest some "teen-age" lettuce and cilantro and dill.  So those will go into the shares this week also.
In the flower beds, without the presence of the tuberoses, the flowers are also diminishing much faster than usual. This week we will do a rather interesting thing that we hope will please you.  During the  
season, some of the flowers we grew dry well.  We were able to dry some statice, yarrow, "Harry Lauder walking stick" (a variety of hazel) and broom corn.  The eucalyptus is also about ready to cut.So we'll offer the flower shares TWO bouquets this week:  one with fresh flowers and one of dried flowers.  The dried bouquet should last well into the winter, if not longer!
We feel it has been a generally successful season. We hope you have enjoyed the produce and flowers this year.  We have enjoyed growing them.
We believe CSA is indeed about community supporting local agriculture - we also believe it as about building community, building ties to each other and to the land every one of us depends on for our health.   
We feel very confident that everyone has benefited from our relationship this year..... our relationship to the land and to each other.
Lastly, we want to deeply and sincerely thank you for participating in our farm this year.  We very much appreciate your membership in our CSA, our personal community and for being a part of our family this year.  Thank you for supporting our farm, family and locally grown food - and flowers. 
As our CSA season closes, we suggest you to visit the "local producer only" farmers markets in Pittsboro, Carrboro, Chapel Hill, Hillsborough, Western Wake County, Cary, North Hills and Wake Forest.  [And we do still have a few winter CSA shares available.] Be aware of the legislative processes and issues at both the state and federal level that affect small and family farmers and let your representatives know you support locally and organically grown food.
Sincerely, 
Harry and Deb