Another CSA season has come to a close

In week three, the end of the season seems so far way. And now, all of a sudden, our CSA is over for the year and we are preparing to plant our fall garlic. Our CSA, Community Supported Agriculture, fed 30 families for 20 weeks with a box of fresh vegetables, greens and fruit. We are honored to feed our friends and farm family with what we produce on this little strip of land.

You can still find us at the West Asheville & Brevard markets till Dec. Thanks everyone for making this dream a reality. 

This year the boxes included : 
Asparagus
low sugar blackberry jam
lettuce
microgreen mix
radish
garlic
oregano
Chinese cabbage
sweet pea shoots
strawberries
kale
garlic scapes
green onions
turnips
mint
collards
Swiss chard
sunflower micro greens
spicy radish microgreens
spicy Asian greens mix
radishes
beets
winter savory
Kesto (kale pesto)
carrots
new potatoes
chives
lemon balm
low-sugar strawberry jam
onions
peas
basil
carrots
spring onions 
summer squash
cilantro
dill
leeks
dark opal purple basil
cucumbers
cabbage
kohlrabi 
beets
cucumbers 
beans
blackberries
sweet peppers
corn
bread&butter (or Dill pickles) 
jalapeños
tomatoes
delicata squash 
eggplant 
okra
cooking greens
watermelon
acorn squash 
tomatillos
cherry tomatoes
spicy Asian greens
chocolate mint
spaghetti squash
pears
rosemary 
potatoes
bok choi
napa cabbage
Josie's Jam (low sugar blackberry/strawberry) 
mustard greens 
arugula
sunchokes
mizuna mix
sweet potatoes 
& our CSA cookbook

Summer farm. Going. Going. Gone.

We have had another busy and productive year on the farm! We had a record blackberry harvest (275lbs!) and jam production year (almost 900 jars when they are all made). Josephine is six months old and loves 'working' on the farm. She bounces all around the farm in her backpack and helps with harvest days. This summer has really flown by and here are some pictures of all the things that kept us so busy as we begin to head into (very welcomed) cooler weather.

These photos represent our weekly CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) boxes that run 20 weeks throughout the season. We are honored to feed our friends and neighbors every week.

Our success is made possible by our friends that volunteer each week for a CSA share.
We love our farm family!

Over 100 lbs of strawberries this season!

This year we also had a bumper crop of wild black raspberries, wild blackberries and more cultivated raspberries than any year before!

Blackberries just starting to show up..

Our friends Mara & Jon had a beautiful, intimate wedding on our property in June. I hiked the first month of the Appalachian Trail with Jon 9 years ago!! And they hiked it together 4 years ago. Nothing but love for these rad friends.

Our newest addition to our jam line is our "Wild Jam" that includes wild blackberries, wild black raspberries and wild wine berries (above).

Monday is ladies day on the farm. Three volunteers really help with large projects.

We had a crazy afternoon storm that knocked over our corn and broke our deck umbrella in half! All of the corn eventually did stand back up.

Baby not included in CSA box.

New jam labels

Late night jam session

Back up and ready to go

Helping with (sleeping) so I can pick blackberries. For about a month, we have to pick blackberries every single day.

Root Bottom shades from strawberry to wild black raspberry

We had perfect weather for our August farm to table dinner.

Our next big event, Pedal to Plate (bike to farm to table), is just around the corner Sept 17. Tickets available at rootbottomfarm.com/pedaltoplate

Still have those giant pumpkin blue ribbon hopes. This year they grew right out of the compost pile. The one directly in front of Morgan imploded, but we have one contender for this year's County fair.

Ugly is beautiful. Especially when it comes to heirloom tomatoes.

Grape harvest

Two farmers markets a week

What a way to go. The white eggs are beneficial parasitic wasp eggs that actually eat the tomato horn worm from the inside out as they hatch. Nature is awesome.

Making baby food

Pear harvest from our neighbor's tree. We also harvested apples and pears from our young orchard. We are going into our fifth season and starting to see some results. As the old saying goes "the best time to plant an orchard is ten years ago. Or now." We plant our second orchard in spring 2018.

End of the line for bad tomatoes are me making salsa & tomato sauce for the whole winter. This year we had salsa right until the next tomatoes showed up. Worth it!

Missing, mismatched and broken. Finally renovated this sweet thrift store find in our kitchen.

Farmers market flowers

And just like that we get to wear long sleeves again.