Autumn leaves and purple sweet potatoes — Knuckle Down News, Week 14

Organic Suqash - Autumn leaves and purple sweet potatoes — Knuckle Down News, Week 14

Purple Sweet Potato

The forecast is telling me that tomorrow will be hot as July, but it sure looks like October on the farm today. In preparation for the possibility of frost any day now, this past weekend I began the big squash haul. Although we didn’t get the beautiful crop of delicata or acorn squash I was hoping for, the butternut squash looks beautiful with more than a few five or six pounders! There is also a pretty good crop of pie pumpkins, mmmmm, pumpkin pie.

Speaking of vegetables that people enjoy putting in pie, I’m not sure if I mentioned that I planted a small crop of sweet potatoes this year as an experiment. The slips that I planted came from a breeding project that former Knuckle Down farmer Kate (now running Heartbeet Farm near Ottawa) is taking part in. The hope is to breed sweet potato varieties that grow well in our short growing season, which can often be a challenge.

I am waiting as long as possible to dig mine up, in the hopes of getting enough that everyone can have one or two in their shares, but I did did one up on the weekend to see if they were sizing up at all. Let me tell you, not only did I find some that are big enough to eat, but they were deep purple! I was so surprised I had to cook it right away  (Kate says they will get sweeter if I cure them but it was pretty sweet and reminded me of roasted chestnuts).

Fingers crossed that there will be a few more like that so you can share in my delight!

Sincerely,
– Jenny

This Weeks Share

  • Squash
  • Butter Ball Potatoes
  • Peppers
  • Tomatoes
  • Zucchini or Eggplant
  • Spicy Salad Mix
  • Baby Kale
  • Herbs, Flowers, Hot Peppers and maybe a few Tomatillos too
Pumpkins!

Mysterious Moth

Organic Squash

Fall Stroll