Harvest time!

Hello everyone,
As most of you should know, there's NO pick up this week because Grand Finale, the final harvest of the year, is Saturday. However, I didn't want to leave everyone hanging with no post, so here I am. Besides, I have all these adorable pictures of Napa cabbage from last Friday that I thought I should share.
It's been a very busy week out at the Farm as we prepare for Saturday's distribution. We've been harvesting everything that will keep for a few days. On Monday they brought in the leeks--though I missed it, leek harvest holds a special place in my heart because it was two years ago during the leek harvest that, in conversation, we came up with the idea that eventually became the Community Farm Kitchen. On Tuesday we got incredibly cold while harvesting root vegetables. It's a wonderful harvest of rutabagas, which are one of my favorites, so I'm looking forward to making some delicious dishes with these sweet roots. We also got some gorgeous beets and plenty of monster daikon radishes! After pulling the roots we have to chop off the leaves and bag and weigh the roots and box up the leaves to be fed to the cows and goats. Rebecca developed a game where we each try to guess what the final share amount of a given vegetable is going to be. 5 pounds of rutabaga each, anyone? We'll know the winners on Saturday. Yesterday was another cold day at the Farm, but we kept warm with a lunch of hot soup and a busy job of picking Brussels sprouts (and yes, chopping off the leaves--a favorite treat for the goats and cows!). Anne says this might be the best Brussels sprouts harvest ever--we have a lot to look forward to in these sweet treats. Other tasks at the Farm this week have been tidying up and putting things away for the winter. We got to wrestle with hoses, put away chairs, and mulch the garlic we planted. Soon the Farm will be resting quietly for another season.
In the mean time, I'm off to pickle last week's daikons and clean out the refridgerator at the kitchen, ready for a huge influx of vegetables on Saturday. Hope you're as excited as I am!
peace
Mary
Photo notes: 1. Chopping up the lovely napa cabbage. 2. The inside of a napa 3. Cynthia looks undaunted by the amount of cabbage she has to chop.