My Final Powisset Farm CSA Share of the Year…

It was bittersweet last week…. I picked up our final Powisset Farm CSA share of the year. It was a bountiful year at the farm and we have great memories from this season… so I thought I’d share a few with you.

Last week’s final share consisted of late-season fall veggies, including: kale, mixed greens, red leaf lettuce, onions (not pictured), garlic (not pictured), carrots, kohlrabi, butternut squash, potatoes, parsnips, yams and radishes.

There weren’t any pick-your-own veggies left in the fields… though, in past weeks we had been lucky enough to pick things like this:

Lots and lots of cherry tomatoes!

Gorgeous PURPLE wax beans!

A family favorite, husk cherries!

Kale, chard and fresh herbs!

We even had several weeks of raspberry picking. I have to admit this is my favorite part of the share… we LOVE raspberries. This year, the bushes were full of stinging critters so you had to be really careful! The bumble bees were busy pollinating the fruit flowers; meanwhile, the yellow jackets were just as busy munching away on any fruit that was remotely ripe. Those yellow jackets made me angry on some days!

Very important bumble (or are they honey?) bees!

Pain-in-the-butt, aggressive, yellow jackets!

But we kept a brave face, left the stinging critters alone and continued to pick. Toward the end of the season, when most of the fruit was coming ripe, we were rewarded with pints of juicy, red raspberries!

Even the boy braved the yellow jackets!

This made the effort 100% worthwhile!

Many of the weeks were very prolific. This is a SMALL share at the farm! It was the perfect size for our 3-person family. In the past, the farm only offered larger shares (which I split with friends). Was very happy to have the small share this year… it was more than enough.

A typical mid-summer weekly share…

Sometimes we got BIG surprises…

Like this ginormous spider that was in the bottom of my grocery bag!

Other times, it was the tiny things that surprised us…

Like this world’s smallest watermelon…

My favorite surprise happened at the last CSA pick up though…

Mamma and baby carrot

In addition to the CSA, we also spend time at the farm for 4H. My son participates in the Powisset Farm Hens & Hogs 4H club. The kids meet bi-weekly, perform farm chores, do community service, help in the fields  and raise an annual set a piglets that are brought to the Worcester County Fair and then sold as pork shares at the farm.

There are two resident sows that live at the farm full time and about 100 chickens. We all take turns feeding these animals and collecting the eggs to sell at the Powisset Farm stand.

Queenie (black) and Strawberry Shortcake (pink) — Shorty for short 🙂 Our resident sows.

This year, there were challenges with the litters that resulted in only 5 piglets surviving between the two litters. To ensure the farm would have enough pork for the shares, we purchased some additional piglets.

Shortie and her baby, “Miracle”. Miracle had blue eyes and was the only piglet to survive that litter.

Queenie’s set of 4 piglets… the one with the spots was “our” pig… her name was Dottie.

The additional piglets we purchased this year…

While this makes us feel sad sometimes… to see them go off. We also feel very rewarded that we get to not only spend time with these amazing animals before they pay their dues to the farm, but also because I know we enhance their short lives with lots of love and attention.

Chance with our beautiful babies…

Here piggy, piggy!

Chance brushing Dottie… about a week before the fair.

While the season is over and we’re about to head into a long New England winter, my family and I are certainly looking forward to next year’s share and new farm additions!

If you’ve ever considered joining a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), I can’t recommend the Powisset CSA enough! The farm is run by a group of amazing people, who work very hard to bring food to our table. They also write an awesome farm blog that I recommend you read!