Click here to place your order for this week (please give us 24 hours lead time before your desired pick up date/time). website glitch seems to be fixed.
You can now find us at:
Sundays – Squirrel Hill Farmers Market – 9am – 1 pm
Mondays – East Liberty 3 – 7 pm
Wednesdays – Here at The Farm – 11 – 7
Fridays – Northside Farmers Market – 3 – 7 pm
Saturdays – Mt. Lebanon, Uptown – 9am – 12pm
Farm update – by Greg
Farm life this past week has been a bit off rhythm since we were planning for the awesome Harvest Feast this past Saturday. A friend, late in the night, was recounting the chapters of The Feast; from the tours, the grand wine opening, the unveiling of the roasted pig, the arrangement of the buffet, the gorging!!, the second grazing, the cider pressing, the drinking, the smokey sparklers, the fireworks, the campfire and finishing off with s’mores.
Wow, it was a wonderful time for us as hosts to get to know many of newer folks and to connect with the long time community members that continue to support this natural food production machine!
As an update, Liam (our friend’s black lab) was spooked by the fireworks and got loose. He was found at a neighbor’s house the next morning and is all right. He’s now safe in his quiet home.
Despite being the end of the CSA season, there’s still a lot of farm work to be done in terms of maintenance and winterizing (yes, it’s never too early to prepare for the cold season). Multiple engines have been getting cranky after such a hard summer, so I’ve been taking the opportunity to flush carburetors, change filters and lube up the moving parts.
For me, shop work is a third uniform to change into. While we take extra precautions to keep the barnyard activities separated from the vegetable field activities… and both of those separated from the CSA store! Working with engines adds an entirely different level of grime and filth to my life.
Between motor oil changes, old grease gun blowouts and working on any engine or implement that has been in the vegetable fields, my hands, sleeves, clothes and whole person wind up smelling like the shop.
Not to mention the pollen… For some reason the field equipment are all pollen magnets, and the shop work, especially the air compressor cleaning, creates a nice thick cloud which settles mostly in my lungs. Jen can now almost predict the start of my sneezing fit when I get back to the house and start de-griming.
Long ago I (Greg) was a regional governor for Slow Food USA and was traveling, every few years to a food festival/international gathering in Turino, Italy. On one trip I passed a chocolate shop with what looked like ground cherries dipped in chocolate… One Euro each. Knowing how prolific ground cherries are… and considering a Euro at the time was $1.25… it peaked my interest to stop the group and make a detour into the chocolate shop, since one ground cherry plant could yield hundreds of these fruits.
But the taste was unlike any other ground cherry I’d ever eaten. It tasted as if the candy makers injected orange juice into the fruit, but it’s just how delicious it is.
It took some time to figure out what variety it was, and of course, I retold the story of this legendary deliciousness… we even tried to grow it here but we didn’t have much success. It is the opposite of its fast and prolific Aunt Molly type (the variety we grow) … instead it stood out to be slow and sparse. This weekend, some old friends gifted me with a box of chocolate covered Cape Gooseberry Delights that they grew in their garden, and they were out of this world!
The Menu
A few tomatoes, a scant amount of cherry tomatoes, tomatillos, husk cherries, peppers, hot peppers, scallions, green tomatoes (?), potatoes, dill and/or parsley, greens (mizuna or turnip greens), kale, and maybe the carrots are ready!!
Only four more CSA pick ups to go…. it’s amazing how quickly time flies! I’ll post info about our extended season harvest plans in the coming weeks – and we’ll have turkeys for sale for Thanksgiving…. YOU MUST put a down deposit via our website to reserve your turkey. No cash. Don’t fret yet – as they aren’t posted on our webstore…. it’ll be a couple weeks!
Big Thanks – by Jen
I think we’re finding our sweet spot. This Saturday’s farm picnic was one to go into the record books. From my Farm Bubble of a Life (I don’t get out much, besides farmer’s markets) it was truly amazing to see how many people showed up here. Not just CSA and Garden Share members, but old friends, past interns (now old friends), neighbors, new customers, volunteers, family, long-time newsletter readers….and lots of kids. I’m not the best as chatting and mingling and tend towards the busywork of the behind-the-scenes partying…. carving the pig roast, washing dishes, etc.. but when I did sit down to chat… I was constantly filled with the warm fuzzies.
We’ve put a lot of years into building up this farm community and it all played out like a symphony last night. It felt good to see so many people congregate around this farm, enjoying the community that we’ve helped to cultivate on this fertile ground.
Thank you! (If you didn’t make it out this year…. we’re definitely going to do it again next year…probably ’round the same time.)
