Stella and winter produce. First, winter is on its way with predicted temperatures dipping into the mid 20s by the end of the week. An arctic blast is coming our way and while produce is still abundant, these cold snaps will inevitably compromise what we farmers can do in extending the season. We do a lot to stave off mother nature, but in the end, winter will come.

Luckily some of the things we grow are fairly well protected in high tunnels or greenhouses and some produce is very hardy and can withstand pretty cold temperatures. Nevertheless, now is the time to partake of the huge amount of beautiful, quality produce available to you this week from Hattie’s Garden. As the harvest continues into the coldest months, the list of produce we are able to offer will begin to dwindle.

This week is a good week to stock up on some of the vegetables and produce still available, especially produce that will last a long time. Deep Grass onions, sweet potatoes and butternut squash are certainly worth a small stockpile.

Chesapeake Organic has an amazing list of really high quality produce, and has added beets, rutabagas and cauliflower to their list. I was ecstatic when I got their order this past week, as box after box revealed the nicest, most abundant produce I have seen in a while — 3 kinds of kale, 2 kinds of pok choi, 4 kinds of cabbage (cabbage can last at least a couple months in the refrigerator in plastic), leeks, scallions, parsley and dill and on and on, all of it simply fabulous.

We can’t wait to see what Mossflower Garden has for us. We missed them last week, but have a nice list for them this week, including baby arugula, blue collard greens, black Spanish radishes and salad turnips.

Hattie’s Garden will harvest young Giant Red Mustard and young Senposai for you this week — both of these Asian greens are young and tender and we fear they may be compromised by next weekends arctic plunge, so we want to enjoy them now. Hattie is also pulling large bunches of really nice, tender and succulent mature arugula from the high tunnel. We are going to jealously hoard our young carrots for another couple weeks, so we can enjoy them for the holidays.

Of course, every vendor on our list has wonderful products and we hope you can explore them all this off-season.

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Stella

Before I let you get on with your ordering, I want to introduce you to Stella, the cat, with the bright red eyes.

This whimsical artwork, originally created by our own Suzanne Squires with acrylic paint on canvas, is professionally transferred to 5″ x 7″ glossy, white 5″ x 7″ blank notecards. There are three designs to choose from and are now on sale through Hattie’s Garden which can ordered online.