Try our new autumn mesclun! In addition to our trademark lettuce and arugula, our new mesclun includes baby beet greens, and young Asian greens, including Mizuna and Fun Jen.

Everything is sweetening up as the weather cools and we experience colder nights. All of our greens and our young carrots are getting that nice flavor only cold weather can bring. The plants respond to cold by converting their starch to sugars. At Hattie’s Garden, we tend to grow with the seasons, focusing on giving our vegetables what they want.

Tomatoes and green beans want warm weather and we don’t plant much in the way of kale or carrots during the hot summer months because we know the flavor will pale in comparison to what we can grow as the weather cools in the fall months.

We encourage you to learn from your farmers and eat with the seasons. Now is the time to enjoy sweet potatoes and winter squash, onions and late potatoes, kale and other “mustard greens,” and root vegetables like radishes, carrots and turnips.

See what is available from Hattie’s Garden on Thursday and Friday below, and visit the market on Saturday to supplement your pantry with some of the unusual seasonal vegetables your farmers grow. You are likely to find leeks, fennel, radicchio and escarole, in addition to some of the most flavorful and unusual winter squash you have ever seen. Be sure to ask your farmer what to do with these lovely fall and winter staples, and ask them how best to store them.

Let us help you to get in touch with really healthy eating. Not only is it the best thing we can do for our health, but these fresh vegetables are above and beyond anything you can find in the supermarket in taste and freshness.

What’s Available This Week

The following will be available from Hattie’s Garden on Thursday from 3 to 6 p.m., or Friday from 1 – 5 p.m., and Saturday, from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. at the HLFM, now located at the Shields Elementary parking lot.

• Young Arugula — It’s beautiful, clean and very flavorful.
• Loose Leaf Lettuce — We cut at a young and tender stage of growth and include a delightful variety of colors, shapes and textures.
• Mesclun — A nice mixture of our young arugula, young Asian greens, baby beet greens and loose leaf lettuce.
• Young Carrots — Slim early carrots are sweet and delicious.
• Red Russian Kale — A nice mild, sweet, flat-leaved Siberian-type kale. Always picked young and cooks quickly or can be eaten raw.
• Kyona Mizuna — Quick cooking and very delicious Asian green.
• Hakurei Turnips — These small Japanese delicacies are by far the sweetest “turnips” you will ever eat. Cook them until just soft without overcooking, or eat them raw as a salad turnip.

What’s Available from Deep Grass

The following will be available only on Thursday from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m., or Friday from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. at Hattie’s Garden. Note: These items cannot be brought to the HLFM on Saturday as it is a producer-only market.

• Red Bliss Potatoes — Low starch content and are often characterized by a creamy, firm and moist flesh that holds its shape well after cooking. They’re typically great for roasting, boiling, casseroles and potato salads.
• White Sweet Potatoes — The white sweet potato usually has a golden to pale yellow skin and the flesh is creamy white to pale yellow. It also contains more sugar, and is used as an ingredient for desserts in addition to the main course. If you haven’t tried these, you will be in for a pleasant surprise.
• Orange Sweet Potatoes — In some parts of the USA and Canada, sweet potatoes are called yams. This is a misnomer since yams are actually a totally different species. A sweet potato is a tuberous plant that belongs to the Convulvolaceae family. The orange sweet potato has lots beta-carotene due to its orange flesh. When cooked, it becomes fluffy and creamy.
• Acorn Squash — Has a smooth, dark green exterior with longitudinal ridges and a sweet, yellow-orange flesh. It derives its name from its distinctive acorn shape. This hardy squash can be stored throughout the fall and winter, and will save for several months in a cool, dry location.
• Free-range Chicken Eggs — Deep Grass chickens enjoy a natural farm life setting where they can produce the most nutritious eggs. These eggs are so much better than their commercially-produced, store-bought counterparts.
• Yukon Gold Potatoes — Available in two sizes. Slightly flat and oval in shape with light gold, thin skin and light yellow flesh. A true multi-purpose potato, Yukon Golds are starchy enough to bake, firm enough to boil and use in just about any cooking application.
• Red Onions — Mild and sweet. Great for using in salads, salsas, and other raw preparations, as well as for cooking.
• Candy Sweet Yellow Onions — Good all-purpose onion, with a light golden skin and yellow flesh.
• Garlic — A wonderful seasoning to add aroma, taste, and added nutrition to your dishes.

Yours at the market and garden…