It’s hard to believe, but this is the second-to-last week of the summer CSA!  In the beginning of the season, eighteen weeks feels like an endless stretch into the future.  But every year it feels like we reach the end almost before we know it.

Before we get to the veggies, a couple of things to catch you up on:

• Space is still available in the Fall CSA.  $60 for four weeks of salad greens, root crops, hearty leafy greens and more.  Tinyurl.com/HCFfall2012
• The link to the end-of-season CSA survey will arrive in your in-box sometime over the next week or two.  We appreciate if you take the time to answer it — it really impacts our planning for the following season.

As for the veggies this week, we’re at the end of our three week run of broccoli.  The warm rain means that broccoli has started to go by quickly in the fields, and the Brussels sprouts are  yellowing.  They’ll both still taste great, but aren’t quite a beautiful as usual.   There also may no longer be enough broccoli to fill all the bulk orders. Luckily, spinach loves wet weather, and we’re happy to include it in this week’s share.

As for the sweet potatoes, we are so excited to  produce something that we’ve dreamed about for years.  And while we’re thrilled that they were plentiful, beautiful, and delicious, we were also disappointed…  although we now have five barn cats, the mouse damage to the tubers was intense.  We used to experience tremendous mouse damage to carrots and other root crops, but then we adopted a posse of barn cats.  Tux is the king of the cats, and we credited him with leading the charge.  But the foliage in the sweet potato greenhouse was apparently too dense for the cats to do their job, or the black plastic created safe passages for the mice.  Many of the largest, most beautiful sweet potatoes were half eaten or more.  There are still enough sweet potatoes left for everyone to have a taste, but I think it might just leave us all craving more.  Next year, more cats!

Cecilia’s Sweet Potato inspection. Did a mouse nibble this one?

Please be in touch with any questions or thoughts as the season draws to a close.  See you next week!

Have a wonderful week and eat well,

Reba and the HCF crew

Week 17 of 18:  Shallot, Sweet Potatoes, Winterbor Kale, Brussels Sprouts (sad little ones), Spinach, Broccoli, Green and/or Red Peppers, Garlic, Carrots

This week’s recipes:  Sweet Potato Fries, Quinoa Wilted Spinach Salad, Pan-Browned Brussels Sprouts