You’ve enthusiastically surveyed your sweater collection, and maybe even donned a favorite cozy item on an early morning stroll. Your social media feed is slowly casting visions of pumpkin and cocoa instead of inflatable pools and watermelon. You can go to the park, in the middle of the day, and feel the sensation of both warm sunshine on your shoulders and a cool, crisp breeze at your back. The weather is starting to shift in Texas, and this incredibly pleasant time is known as fall. If we had to put a finger on a week that marked the transition from repressively hot to intoxicatingly cool, this is the week. Can you feel it?? While so much in the world seems up in the air, the air itself is announcing the predictable tilt of the planet and a seasonal transition that will bestow sunny days and cold nights, warm mugs of hot beverages, and cool-season crops. We're talking carrots for days, and verdant greens as far as the eye can see.

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NOW IS THE TIME WE LIVE FOR

About 95% of JBG employees clock in and out of an office with no walls and dirt floors, an outdoor environment devoid of any separation from the elements. For a Texas farmer who lives outdoors, fall is the season we most readily welcome. Literally, we jump for joy, get to work early, dance as we pick, and laugh as we sort. Oh, to be cold! It’s time to fetch our knit beanies and load bins of freshly harvested produce with a little less panic - no longer racing against the sun’s harsh rays. But this moment of transition isn’t just exciting for the improved office conditions. This moment is exciting because of the bounty pouring out of the fields.

Kieley this past week wearing her Carhartt beanie. By noon it was excessive, but in the hours just after the sun peeked over the trees, it was necessary!

Fall is perhaps the most plentiful season at JBG, and the sheer diversity of the crops we’re harvesting right now rivals the shelves of Whole Foods. Often, eating seasonally means learning that squash is summer and lettuce is winter, but fall? In fall, you can have it all. This week we welcomed our first bunches of collards, mustards, and parsley. Cool-weather crops abound, and soon the abundance of kale and collards will surpass that of warm-weather vegetables like eggplant and okra. But for now, everyone exists together in perfect harmony. You can make a summer ratatouille with a side salad, and if you’ve been a CSA Member for a long time, you know how exciting (and fleeting!) this moment is.

CUSTOMIZATION

Did you know we have officially brought back our CSA Customization feature? Many of you have been suffering from a serious case of eggplant fatigue, asking us to alert you know when it’s over so you can re-join the CSA. Well, it can be over immediately if you want it to be. CSA Members: As a reminder, you can log in to your CSA account during your customization window and swap two items you don’t want for ones you’d prefer. As we mentioned, warm and cool weather crops are both in full force at this moment, but if you’ve had enough of summer, just swap out the squash and bid farewell to the okra. For a reminder on how to customize, click here or just shoot us an email - farm@jbgorganic.com.

This week we picked our first harvests of collards, parsley, and bunched mustard. If this sounds exciting to you, make sure to try out our CSA customization feature to get more of the veggies you want.

CSA PERKS

Did you know that we have an official CSA Referral program? We’re reminding you about this fact now because it’s an incredible time to refer your friends to the CSA. We really can’t overstate it… our fields are bursting at the seams with vegetables of every flavor! CSA Members: when you login into your CSA account, you’ll notice a referral code at the top right corner of your “My Deliveries” page. Share this code with a friend (or several), and if they enter the code when they join the CSA, you’ll get $20, and they’ll get a free box! We kid you not!

Folks join our CSA Program for many different reasons… some focus on the environmental benefits of supporting a nearby farm that can get food to the table with minimal food miles. For many, the fact that our farm is certified organic is paramount. Some of our CSA Members are all about the convenience of our home delivery option, and for others, it’s simply important to support a local business. But why do folks stick around? Why have we been delivering a box of homegrown vegetables to some homes, every week, for over 10 years?  Well, the vegetables, of course. It’s fall, and we’re so excited and proud of the diverse and delicious crops coming out of fields right now. This is the moment WE ALL live for! Happy fall and happy cooking!  Bon Appetite!

Photo by Summer Migoni. Recipe for this summer ratatouille linked above.