The late fall colors may be more muted in tone right now, but the stark intensity of exposed branches takes my breath away. You gotta love a season that produces such a splendid array of gnarly and stringy root vegetables! Some of them look downright creepy. Have you seen hairy celeriac? It’s insane!
I wrote a piece back in June called Fresh, Alive… Real Food about my love affair with the CSA that we belong to. As we head into Thanksgiving it seems only fitting to acknowledge and honor the synergistic output of so many forces (visible and invisible) that gather to create such a bounty of food that we eat. To express my gratitude I share these words from The Food Project newsletter – which reads like poetry:
We’ve done it! Together we’ve weathered another growing season in Lincoln, Massachusetts. We ate carrots small and tender in spring, long and fragrant in summer, and large and crisp in the fall. In this cool, damp year we may have discovered a love of bok choy, or perhaps come to resent it. Spring spinach was abundant. It rained, it rained, it rained. We all mourned the loss of the tomatoes and cheered the survival of the potatoes hit by Late Blight. The eggplant came in heavy, the melons were reluctant. There were beautiful cabbages and tiny ones. The onions grew slowly, but sized up in the end. The broccoli was beautiful. Beets grew large, celeriac hairy, rutabaga heavy. As usual the kale was endless. I hope you savor this last week of produce fresh from our sandy farm, appreciating the taste of this late October. Next year will be another adventure. By joining us for this season you’ve not only supported our small band of farmers and the conscientious use of our 31 acres of conservation land, you’ve helped to provide hundreds of young people and adults with a life-changing experience interacting with food, the land and community in the unique setting that is The Food Project. As part of this CSA you stepped out of the current of our global food system and helped to strengthen our little counter-eddy of local sustainable food production. We hope you’ll continue to actively support a more just and sustainable food system during the winter months by asking at supermarkets for locally sourced products and fair trade alternatives when possible. Thanks for sharing this season with us! May you enjoy it down to the last turnip.
–Excerpt from the Farm News, newsletter of The Food Project, October 26, 2009
