Basket Contents: Edamame or tomatillo, ground cherries, zucchinis or cucumbers, tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, broccoli or cauliflower, peppers, eggplant or arugula, rosemary or thyme, carrots
Recipe of the week: How to cook Edamame!
As the temperatures drop and the days get shorter, we are in full swing of harvests of winter vegetables. Each week, we harvest not only what is in the basket, but we are also spending time harvesting carrots, potatoes, squash and other veggies that will be stored for our winter baskets starting in November. This year, we have undertaken a few improvements to help us with this harvest. Specifically, we purchased (and repaired) a rusty potato harvester from the 1930’s ! It is quite the sight, but it sure is a huge improvement over digging out all those potatoes by hand!
The other improvement we are working on is a barrel washer for washing carrots, parsnips, turnips and other root vegetables. Jenna is building it out of an old garage door motor, a few bike rims, wood and metal that she has welded together. It is almost finished, just in time for the big carrot harvests coming up! We are really looking forward to seeing it turn and putting dirty carrots in at one end to see them come out clean at the other end. We are hoping that it significantly reduces the “frozen hand syndrome” that we had so often last year as we washed hundreds of pounds of carrots by hand! If you join us for our harvest party on Saturday, you will likely see it in action!
This is all to say that we have winter baskets for sale! This year, our baskets will be available at our Montreal and St-Eustache drop-offs in November and December and on farm from November through to early February. We are offering one size of basket, with 8-12 veggies in each basket and with a value of at least $40 per basket. Last year, we found that even our every other week partners preferred this size of basket over a smaller size. If ever you feel that the $40 format is too much for you, please let us know and we will find you a buddy to share a basket with. As always, we want to do our best to make our vegetables accessible to everyone!
Please note that people in St-Eustache can sign up for a « on the farm » basket (therefore 7 baskets) and the first 4 baskets will be delivered to the drop-off in St-Eustache. The three final baskets (in January and February) can then be collected on the farm. We can also put you in contact with other St-Eustache partners so that you can do “veggie carpooling” for the final three baskets.
| Drop-off location | Number of baskets | Drop-off time | Dates | Total price |
| On the farm | 7 | Anytime after 15h each Tuesday, to be collected in the cold room at your convenience | November 5 et 19 December 3 et 17 January 7 et 21 February 4 |
$290 |
| St-Eustache | 4 | Tuesdays from 16h30 to 18h | November 5 et 19 December 3 et 17 |
$175 |
| Montreal | 4 | Thursdays from 17h30 to 18h30 | November 7 et 21 December 5 et 19 |
$175 |
TO REGISTER FOR A WINTER BASKET, CLICK HERE.
We would also like to take this opportunity to remind everyone of our Solidarity Basket program. The basic idea of our solidarity baskets is simple: we accept donations from basket partners and other people and we put these donations directly towards the cost of a basket for someone with less financial resources. Therefore, we are able to offer reduced price baskets to anyone who requests them. This year, we were able to collect over $800 in donations, which helped us be able to distribute reduced price baskets to several individuals and to a community organization in Lachute, Café Partage. We would like to thank all of our partners for their generous donations and also thank our Member of Parliament, Mylène Freeman, who provided us with a donation equivalent to a full basket for the season (almost $500!) For winter baskets, we are, of course, still accepting donations and we also have funds to provide reduced rate baskets. All you need to do is ask!