The days and especially the nights are cooling off now, and we’ve been getting more rain, thank goodness! But fall is advancing inexorably.

We planted our last mesclun and brassicas a few weeks ago and have been cleaning up and cultivating the garden where the veggies are finished.

The tomatoes, peppers and eggplants are continuing to produce abundantly and will do so until the first frost. We have cool weather vegetables like spinach growing again. Our leeks are ready for harvest. As the weather cools, the carrots are getting sweeter and the parsnips are maturing. We have hope for the latest planting of Brussels sprouts. (Flea beetles and extreme heat destroyed our first planting.)

Soon we will be planting garlic for next year. We’ll also be mulching our rhubarb and straw- berry beds with straw to protect them over winter for the spring harvest.

Right now, though, a bountiful harvest of winter squash is becoming more and more evident. As the leaves of the squash vines wither, small and large orange pumpkins, yellow spaghetti squash, buff-coloured butternuts, deep green acorn and kabocha squash, striped delicatas and sweet dumplings create a colourful palette in the fields.

We welcome these additions to our CSA shares, our farmstand and our table!