We had a wicked 22° wake-up last Friday morning, which gave us quite a scare. Although we had much of the field covered in anticipation of the low 30s, we couldn’t possibly have covered everything. The cucumber and squash plants were flattened, and any pepper and eggplant rows we hadn’t covered were toast. Everything suffered a little-even the cold-hardy beet and turnip tops were cringing, but as you can see from today’s basket, plenty survived with nutritional and aesthetic radiance. Our fear was that the head lettuces would be history, but just look at that romaine! 
We’ll have red iceberg for you next week, and probably beets as well. As my father, a lifelong citrus farmer, tells us, “You know you’re the biggest gamblers there are.” That’s farming. But the payoff is worth it at dinnertime. Our eldest, Zachary, will come home from India next Sunday. We are daydreaming of our first meal all together again, sharing life over dinner.Thanks for your support & appreciation of good food. Now, may the freezes be light and the baskets be heavy.
October 24, 2011
Welcome to the First Ever Fall Tecolote Basket Season!
“Wonder of wonder, miracle, miracle!” Here we go with our first-ever Fall CSA at Tecolote Farm! It didn’t seem like such a bad idea at the time: taking July off of our regular basket season to celebrate our two eldest children’s graduations from High School and Middle School, to show them that even farm kids can occasionally have a summer vacation worthy of a first day back –to-school essay. It didn’t seem like such a bad idea that we would make up for this lapse from real life by having a Fall CSA season. But then September was in the 110s, or at least never below 95. Not a drop fell from the sky. Nearby Bastrop County burned. Our first plantings of salad greens, turnips, leafy greens were germinating poorly or being overwhelmed by weed pressure; our green beans couldn’t tolerate the heat; the struggle to keep the ground moist in high winds and record-breaking heat made it all seem for naught. First plantings of many things were tilled in as failures. Yet here we are today: eating turnips roasted and greens braised, chard in our omelettes and squash fritters for dinner. It’s vibrant, nutritious, and delicious. Hooray for risks taken and harvests earned! Hooray for an inch-and-a-half rain that quells the despair and the soil temperature to boot!
Thanks for coming on board with us– we’re so glad you will be eating what we’re eating for the next 4-9 weeks of what’s got to be my favorite season in Texas: the one farthest away from the next hot spell! Your support of local family farms is an investment worth taking. Your choice to buy direct from a farmer cuts out some cost and definitely gets you the freshest, tastiest produce money can buy. We appreciate your trust & support, and appreciate your commitment to eating well. Now, let’s eat!