Harvesting and packing 15 CSA shares today was so much fun! It really brings out the “I’m making you a present” feeling, when it’s just a few. And, when packing 15 shares instead of 160, the tomato rationing gets way more exciting for you. These are the last of the 2008 tomato harvest, which had a late beginning, which is why we have done a crazy thing to extend it. We picked every good green and sort of red tomato from our plants and brought them inside to a small room upstairs in our barn with a small fan heater in it. We are hoping to ripen them this way. I’ve read about it in books, heard people tell me it could be done, just never got around to trying it. So the ones in your share are the last vine ripened fruits of the season. We hope to be selling our barn ripened fruits for the next couple of months at market. When packing the shares I tried to make a little roadblock with the potatoes and carrots to keep the squash and cabbage from rolling onto the tomatoes. But even if they get a bit smooshed, you can always make soup. I just sauté onion, celery, carrot, and add tomatoes and basil from the freezer. Tomato soup, quick like that.Harvesting and packing 15 CSA shares today was so much fun! It really brings out the “I’m making you a present” feeling, when it’s just a few. And, when packing 15 shares instead of 160, the tomato rationing gets way more exciting for you. These are the last of the 2008 tomato harvest, which had a late beginning, which is why we have done a crazy thing to extend it. We picked every good green and sort of red tomato from our plants and brought them inside to a small room upstairs in our barn with a small fan heater in it. We are hoping to ripen them this way. I’ve read about it in books, heard people tell me it could be done, just never got around to trying it. So the ones in your share are the last vine ripened fruits of the season. We hope to be selling our barn ripened fruits for the next couple of months at market. When packing the shares I tried to make a little roadblock with the potatoes and carrots to keep the squash and cabbage from rolling onto the tomatoes. But even if they get a bit smooshed, you can always make soup. I just sauté onion, celery, carrot, and add tomatoes and basil from the freezer. Tomato soup, quick like that.

Hubbard Squash has grey-blue skin and orange meat inside. It is very sweet. You may have seen wedges of this wrapped for sale at the supermarket. This is because they are normally so gigantic that no one would buy a whole one, we’re talking ten to twenty pounders. But we found seed for a petite version called Blue Ballet Baby Blue Hubbard. Isn’t it just sweet? Just a cute sweet little baby squashy-washy. It is possible to eat the skin of this one if you steam it or roast it with some water to prevent drying, or you can scrape the meat away from the skin if you prefer. This squash makes a great “pumpkin pie”. Just cook and mash and substitute for pumpkin in your recipe. A good way to use up leftover cooked squash is to add it to pancakes, waffles or muffins, in chunks or pureed.