If ever a sign from God were necessary to signal that it was high time we pack our bags and head South, this would be it :
according to Environment Canada, that depressingly doomsday-ish weather forecasting service of ours, night temperatures at the farm will hover between -6 and -11 degrees Celsius for the next 3 nights, the likes of which we have rarely (if ever) witnessed in late October.
For those of you who wonder what -12 means for a vegetable,
it is certain death, as no vegetable cell can resist that kind of cold, except perhaps our leeks, who can withstand a hard frost here and there without sequelae. For this reason we have harvested almost every remaining harvestable vegetable today – leafy greens, cabbages, etc. We’ll collect the last of the Jerusalem artichokes later this week, but no worries on that front : they can withstand most everything buried as they are 6 inches under.
And so it is that we face this final week of CSA baskets,
happy to see the season end at last. It has been a colourful and emotionally charged one, albeit perhaps less so at Arlington Gardens than elswehere. Why, you may ask? Maybe it’s that our sandy loams absorb excess water, or that our vegetables are planted in a more forgiving soil. One thing is for sure, it’s called plain old luck: the luck of not being at the mercy of unforgiving winds, like our friends at La ferme des 3 Samson and their hail episode, or of diluvian rains, like the black soil farms of the Lake Champlain area, sponges that just could not be wrung dry this summer. Quebec’s Financière agricole will be writing many cheques this year…
I will not attempt to provide a comprehensive list of everything in your baskets,
they will contain an eclectic mix,
with contents at each delivery location differing from those at the next. I can nevertheless venture the following for starters : a last winter squash (just one), carrots or beets, leeks, parsnips, one or two leafy greens, radish or turnips, and more. We look forward to meeting up with you one last time, and wishing you a wonderful winter.
It looks like it’s already off to a great start.