In the CSA Share this Week:

• Rainbow Chard
• Red Beets
• Cipollini Onions
• Sweet Peppers
• Tomatoes
• Zucchini
• Hot Peppers - Jalapeño & Serrano
• Red Potatoes 

On Rotation:

• Eggplant
• Head Lettuce (Wednesday CSA members only)
• Tomatillos (Port Orford only)

The red potatoes in your share this week are a substitute for our beloved "Desiree" potatoes, which were unavailable from our potato seed supplier this year. We source certified seed potatoes from a sustainable/regenerative family farm in Colorado, Rocky Farms, where they do a beautiful job of using cover crops, animal rotation, and companion planting to build soil health and produce high quality specialty and seed potatoes. They were sold out of Desiree this year, so instead they sent us "Carla Rosa," a new variety for us. We planted our seed potatoes into near-perfect conditions in early May but unfortunately the emergence on the Carla Rosa was spotty compared to our five other varieties. After a season of watering, hilling and weeding, we finally started digging them with the help of the horses a couple weeks ago, only to be deeply disappointed when we discovered that some of the Carla Rosa - which look perfect on the outside - have "brown center" and/or "hollow heart." It's very difficult to detect the problem; our best clue is a slighter darker eye at the end of the tuber. We've cut into hundreds of potatoes over the past week, trying to determine how widespread the issue is. Half the time the suspect potatoes are perfect inside. The potatoes that are afflicted have a brown internal discoloration, a hollowed out core (like a geode), and sometimes some internal rot. No fun! You can cut around the problem areas and salvage the good part of the potato, but still - there's nothing I hate more than an insidious, invisible, and unpredictable defect that makes it hard to guarantee the quality of our produce.

I reached out to Rocky Farms to see if this was a widespread problem with the Carla Rosa, since we haven't noticed it in our other varieties yet. Some potato varieties are more susceptible to brown center and hollow heart than others, so perhaps Carla Rosa is among them - I'm still awaiting their reply. When brown center and hollow heart show up in a potato crop, the problem is typically blamed on environmental stress, particularly when a dry spell is followed by excessive rainfall. In our case, our potatoes are on a consistent biweekly irrigation schedule, so they're not usually subject to major moisture swings throughout the season. All of which leaves me a little befuddled and a lot disappointed.

We painstakingly sorted this week's harvest in hopes of sending you the best potatoes possible, and we also packed everyone an extra pound of spuds in case you end up with any ugly ones. Unfortunately our red potatoes make up about a quarter of our potato production, so we can't afford to toss the whole crop. Nor can we simply leave them in the ground and till them under, lest we want a potato weed patch in that same spot next year! That means that we'll continue to sort them with utmost care and beg your forgiveness if you run into an imperfect tater. Hopefully that extra poundage in your share will make up for it.

Also in the CSA tote this week, Cipollini onions (pronounced the Italian way, CHIP-OH-LEE-NEE). This is the first onion I reach for in our dry storage room, which is now stacked floor-to-ceiling with thousands of pounds of cleaned onions (thanks to our hard-working crew; they've been cleaning onions in every spare moment the past couple weeks!). Cipollinis are typically a small, flat onion measuring one to two inches across - pungent when raw, but divinely sweet and flavorful when roasted or caramelized. Most recipes call for using them whole, due to their diminuitive size. But for whatever reason, they grow to thrice that size (and larger) at Valley Flora, so I usually slice or quarter mine up before cooking. If you want to make some homemade pizza, do NOT skip the caramelized cipollinis on top. Outta this world. You might have to shed a tear or two in the process, but I promise: it's worth it.

Happy official start of Fall this weekend!