A huge thank you to all of you that came to our open house on Saturday. We loved getting to see so many of you. It was really fun getting to watch you and your families harvest and enjoy carrots fresh from the field. Nothing beats a farm fresh carrot…even if it does have a little dirt on it.

Thank you to everyone who signed up for a Winter Share. We are officially sold out for the 2026-2027 season! If you didn’t get a share, but still want our yummy veggies through the winter months, you can find our veggies at both Co-ops, and various Super Ones in the area. If you don’t want to cook, but still want to enjoy our veggies, you can also find our produce on the menu at various restaurants in Duluth. We have one more week left of the summer season and we’ll begin signups for 2027 in late January.

Our crew was hard at work clearing things from the field last week. We got all of our squash out of the field. Thanks to the conveyor belt we got last year, it was a faster task than normal. This meant we got all the squash out of the field in one day. It was a long and sore day, but we did it! Now the squash will sit in temperature controlled areas to begin the curing process.

Since we finished squash in one day, we had a little time this week to also harvest the rest of our first planting of potatoes. It’s been a hard year for our potatoes. We had the worst potato beetle invasion the farm has ever seen. Since we grow potatoes year after year, we always deal with some amount of the beetles. Usually it’s a manageable amount, especially if we can get to the plants before the eggs hatch. This year, the beetles showed up in such large numbers, our crew never had a chance of keeping up. We created different contraptions in an effort to remove the beetles. It helped, but not quite in time for our early crop. The beetles chewed through the foliage too quickly, and stunted the growth of the potatoes. This means that we will have less potatoes than normal, and they are smaller than we’re used to. If you’re a fan of baby potatoes, this is your year! Our ingenuity appeared to be much more effective for the fall crop, so hopefully those will size up better.

This time of year is always filled with a little bit of anxiety. We spend so long waiting and watching vegetables grow, only to find out they didn’t grow very well. Plants with the harvestable part above ground are much easier to keep tabs on. This time of year, most things are growing below ground, and we’re crossing our fingers that they’re doing great things that we can’t see. Usually they are, but sometimes things don’t work out how we hope.

In your box this week:

Arugula/Greens Mix – Carrots – Potatoes – Cucumbers – Tomatoes – Winter Squash – Pole Beans – Cabbage – Celery – Onions – Cilantro

The nights are getting cooler, and soup season is starting. This Coconut and cabbage soup is one of my favorites to make year round. It’s bright and refreshing from the cilantro, lime, and lemongrass. If you want to make this a heartier soup, try adding chicken, pork, or tofu. The recipe calls for napa cabbage, but I’ve made this with different varieties of cabbage and it’s good every time.

This grain and celery salad is a great way to use up this week’s clery. It’s crunchy, sweet, and tart. Great served fresh, or eaten as leftovers. I also like to play around with this recipe by changing out or adding veggies based on what I have in the house. A great addition to this would be some roasted winter squash.

We want to remind all of you that our farm open house is this Saturday, September 26th from 10am-noon. So far, it looks like the weather will be beautiful. Come say hi to your favorite local farmers, enjoy some treats from down the road in Wrenshall, and take a tour of this amazing place. We love it out here, and can’t wait to show it off to all of you!

I can’t believe Tuesday marks the first official day of Fall, and we only have two more weeks of Summer boxes after this. Sometimes it feels like just yesterday we were standing around the greenhouse, starting the first seeds of the season. I can’t believe everything our crew has accomplished and grown in just a few months.

If this reminder about only two more weeks of Summer shares makes you sad, make sure you check out our Winter Share options. We still have a few boxes left, so sign up before they’re all sold out.

Our crew has been working hard to get all of our onions and shallots out of the field to start curing for winter storage. We only have a few beds of shallots left, then we can check that task off our to-do list.

That means this week will be spent getting more potatoes out of the field, and starting to get our pumpkins and squash out of the field. Some of the squash that we grow has a wetter stem. We have to trim these from the vines, and leave them out in the field to start drying out. If we cut them from the vine, and brought them straight into storage, they would add too much moisture to our squash curing room. We like to keep this room at very precise conditions so the squash stay fresh all winter long. Speaking of pumpkins, please take the pumpkin survey if you haven’t already! This lets us know if your family would like extras (so each kid can have one) or none at all.

We’ve spent the last few weeks cleaning up and “closing down” some of our greenhouses for the season. A few weeks ago, we said goodbye to a tunnel of basil. Last week was the final lettuce for the season, so we can start closing down that greenhouse. This week we will say goodbye to our cucumber plants, and begin closing down the greenhouse they were growing in. The process of “closing down” means that we take out any remaining plants, and clean up any debris that was left from the plants. Once things are cleaned up, we seed a cover crop of rye to begin adding more nutrients back into the soil. This cover crop will stay in the tunnels until next spring when we begin laying tarps down to kill the rye. It’s almost like a cozy blanket to tuck in the soil for its winter nap.

In your box this week:

Pole Beans – Carrots – Kale – Onions – Sweet Peppers – Jalapeno – Potatoes – Sunshine Squash – Delicata Squash – Tomatoes – Zucchini – Rosemary

I you want all the fall flavors in one bite, this Cider glazed squash toast is the recipe for you. It’s got roasted pecans, apple cider, winter squash, and warming spices. Finish that off with some salty cheese. Absolutely delicious! The recipe calls for butternut squash, but I think this recipe is actually better if you use the delicata that is in your box this week.

If you’re looking for something to do with your kale that isn’t another fall salad, try these kale chips. They’re tossed in a miso and soy sauce for a salty and umami packed bite. Then they’re baked in the oven to get extra crispy. The longest part of the whole process is waiting for these to bake in the oven. If you’re fortunate enough to have a dehydrator, it makes the process even easier!

We know that we give out a lot of jalapenos. Most of you love it, but some of you don’t know what to do with all of them. If you have a little stock pile of jalapenos in your fridge, try pickling them with this recipe. They’re meant to be made and go straight into the fridge, so no prior canning experience is necessary. Our jalapenos tend to pack a punch, so I like to add a little bit of sugar to this recipe to help balance out the heat. These are great used on top of eggs, tacos, or my personal favorite is putting them on pork lettuce wraps.

Thank you so much to all of you who stopped by Harvest Fest on Saturday. It was wonderful to see so many of you, and get to say hi. If you wanted to say hello to your favorite farmers, but you missed the Harvest Fest, don’t worry. On Saturday, September 26th from 10am-noon we are having an open house on the farm. There will be a farm tour, tractor rides, and treats. It’s completely free, family friendly, and open to all. Invite your friends, family, neighbors, and coworkers. We hope to see many of you there!

Mother nature has flipped the switch and thrown us into fall weather. Sunday night and Monday night this week, the farm is predicted to have overnight lows in the high 30’s. This isn’t as terrible for the plants as a hard frost, but it does put a lot of stress on some of our warmer weather plants. Last week we picked the last of the melons. Even if we don’t get a hard frost, cool days and nights will prevent future fruit from properly ripening this time of the year. Melon season couldn’t last forever, but we sure enjoyed it while it was here.

The cooler weather has the potential to damage the leaves on the pepper and tomato plants, but the fruit should still be just fine until we get a hard frost. On the opposite end, our carrots and kale love this kind of weather. The colder weather means that the plants will start working overtime to convert starches into sugar in an effort to keep the plant alive and healthy. This means sweeter carrots and kale.

When we aren’t thinking of the weather, we’ve been harvesting away on the farm. Some crops are starting to slow down, but others are just starting to pick up. We’ve reached the end of our cucumbers just in time to say a big hello to winter squash! Onions are still coming out of the field, and being placed in drying areas so the paper skins can cure for winter storage.

In your box this week:

Basil – Green Beans – Broccoli – Carrots – Greens Mix – Leeks – Onions – Parsley – Sweet Peppers – Jalapeno – Red Potatoes – Acorn Squash – Tomatoes – Zucchini

This Acorn Squash Salad is a great way to use up the squash and greens mix in your box this week. The salad still has some bright summer flavors from the greens mix and the lemon tahini dressing. However, it also leans into fall with the squash, cherries, and nuts.

My favorite way to use up an abundance of vegetables that isn’t soup, is to turn it all into lasagna. This Vegetable lasagna is a great recipe for that. It makes Leeks the star of the show. You can add other veggies such as zucchini, bell pepper, or carrots to this. If you aren’t a fan of kale, try swapping it out for spinach, or even try it with the greens mix in your box this week.

It’s been an exciting week over here at the farm!

We harvested more carrots, and sent the first of our purple carrots off to grocery stores. Onions started coming out of the field to begin their curing process. We finally got our potato harvester up and running. We were able to put it to use on Friday afternoon to get more red potatoes out of the field. 

The crops seem to be shifting away from bright Summer flavors, and we’re starting to see Fall crops filling up our coolers. We changed our washing set up from Summer carrots to Fall potatoes. The only thing not shifting yet is the weather. Mother Nature is still giving us Summer, and we are happy to enjoy it as long as we can.

We have a big week ahead of us. We plan for more potato harvesting, and getting more onions into the greenhouse to cure. We get to finish the week off with Harvest Fest. It’s basically a giant farmer’s market, down at Bayfront Park in Duluth. It’s this Saturday, September 12th from 10am-4pm. It’s free to enter, and fun for the whole family. There’s live music, crafts, and demonstrations. You can of course say hi and shop from over 20 local farmers. We’ll be there with all your favorite veggies, plus a few items you don’t normally get in your shares. We hope to see you there!

In your share this week:

Broccoli – Melons – Cucumber – Zucchini – Lettuce – Jalapeno – Bell Pepper – Tomatoes – Onion – Green Beans – Carrots – Cilantro – Red Potatoes

It looks like some cooler days may be in our forecast. That means soup season can officially begin. I always like to start off with this Carrot and spiced beef soup because the bright carrot flavor reminds me that Summer isn’t over yet. The spicy ground beef adds a nice flavor and texture to the soup. Also great with ground pork, or spiced white beans.

If you keep seeing cucumbers in your box, and you’re running out of ways to use them, try this Lemon and Cucumber cake. It’s light and refreshing. Perfect for a warm Summer night. It mostly tastes like a lemon cake, but there is a refreshing hint from the Cucumber.