Harvest week 14

Hey Everyone!

It's official, we have started the long slow slide from high summer to fall.  Nights are now dipping into the high forties and the air has that crisp pungency to it. Swims in the river are quicker , lying in the sun has never felt so good. What a summer it has been, back torquing, mind bending, hand cracking river swimming, fruit harvesting.  Literally thousands of pounds of fruits have been plucked by our fingers,  f eeling for ripeness, twisting the stubborn stem until you hear the satisfying snap of fruit released from vine. Our hands are connected to your bellies in quite a visceral way.  Priorities and color schemes change now, I find myself dreaming of lush greens and zesty root crops.  Can't really say I would turn my nose up at a roated lipstick pepper though. The farm seems almost barren, the lush bushyness of squash, beans and tomatoes all but gone.A nimals are shifting in their attitudes, less needy, more calm. Lambs and hogs put the pounds on and I can detect a faint thickening to the cows coat. Still recovering from team Knife and Fork's win in the WNC Chef's Challenge. I was a team member under the genuis guidance of my friend, culinary mentor and brilliant chef Nathan Allen. We went through four rounds of competition to get to the final, matched up against the Biltmore. There is something so poetic about real food turning people's palates and hearts ,showing folks, that through the food we grow and then cook, we can create a revolution,or revelation. Maybe both. I cherish my relationships and my quasi membership in that exalted world of cookery. Honored to call someone like Nate my friend.

Anywho, you should expect a shift in veggies,tomatoes fazing out, potatoes in .Here's the list for this week.

taters

tomatoes

cherry toms

peppers

garlic

basil

eggplant

celery

Enjoy the season's change!

peace

gaelan

Harvest week 13

Howdy All!!

Sorry for not being in touch last week, but we were at the beach, leaving the farm in the capable hands of Nick and Grace for the week. They greeted us on our return with dazed looks on their faces and wild eyes, the farm it seems almost driving them over the edge. What would we do without them !  The farm has started to shift again, as cukes and squash fall away and you can almost hear the rustle of fall in the air and see it in the leaves, changing hues ever so gently.  Nights are cool and the air is crystalline,l  eaving every spruce tree on the ridge in clear view. Hasn't rained in a good while,but that good ole south toe river keeps the plants roots happy and wet. Winter squash lie naked outside, their lush vines dead and gone, the yellow squash gradually turning that smooth butternut color. Tomato vines are slowly dying, but the fruit cascades , leaving all of us in tomato bliss-land.  Eggplant and peppers are filling up our boxes, almost leaping in of their own accord.  It's time to think and imagine, whereas in June and July there was no time for daydreaming, imagining what next season will bring.  Kale, broccoli, cauliflower, chard and many other fall greenage are growing well and looking good. So wonderful to merely tip the potatoes into the baskets, no more painful days of spud harvesting. The summer has seemed so full, bountiful, the way I dream of in the deep of winter,when all these wonderful veggies are mere figments of my fevered imagination.  Hope you all are busy grilling, boiling, chopping and slicing,' cause I know I am! Here are the hitters for this weeks line up.

tomatoes

peppers

eggplant

garlic

cherry toms

basil

carrots

celery

Be well

peace

gaelan

Harvest week 11:the midpoint!

Whew!!! There is so much dirt stuffed up underneath my nails as I write this, that it hurts.Just finished the mad potato dash,three hours of sunbaked madness,as tuber upon tuber emerged gold and purple from the crumbly earth.Some people employ all manner of gadgetry to harvest their solanum tuberosum,but I like to take it back to their Andean heritage,using the fork and the biceps in solidarity with the old ones.Also, I just do'nt like to spend money.Carmella staunchly refused to go swim with Asha,saying she had to finish working,after two hours of full sun and dirt,she finally relented.The yield so far has been fantastic,about 1.5 pounds per foot,that translates to about 900 lbs.harvested and about 1000 more to go.Needless to say,I can barely recall ripping my shirt off and sliding under the river,staying on the bottom 'til my lungs were screaming.Days now are heat induced hallucinations, polka dotted with melons and tomatoes.The pigs do what we all secretly wish we could do, lie blissfully in a soupy cool mud morass,grunting ecstatically whenever we approach.I love the heat,because the mornings and evenings are so cool and gentle,giving me time to make myself ready for the blast furnace.I am sorry I did'nt get to this before the Ashevegas folks received their bounty,but there are now 900 lbs. of Satina and Purple Vikings, neatly packed in boxes,waiting for your bellies.On that note!!!!! tomatoes cherry toms. celery lettuce melon cukes squash carrots beans garlic basil eggplant If that does'nt say MID-SUMMER I do'nt know what would.Anyway,enjoy it all!!! peace gaelan Nicole DelCogliano Gaelan Corozine Green Toe Ground Farm, Celo, NC www.greentoegroundnc.