In this week's penultimate share:

• Lacinato Kale
• Carrots
• Purple Daikon Radish
• Butternut Squash
• Curly Parsley
• Leeks
• Red Cabbage
• Radicchio - Rosalba or Costarossa

We're back after a yummy week of food and fun times with family and friends. Highlights included taking our Chicago family to experience the Redwoods for the first time ("WHOA," said the 10-year olds as they craned their necks skyward), going for a run up Elk River and seeing a bunch of spawning salmon (always magical), hiking Humbug (party of 18, ages 6 to 75), plenty of walks & runs in our beautiful backyard (Floras Lake, Port Orford Heads, Cape Arago), and a morning of riding horses and meeting baby lambs at the farm. So grateful to have had that time together, especially as some of our elders get older.

It's great to be back in the field this week, particularly because we are harvesting Rosalba, my all-time favorite radicchio. It's as pink as one of Glinda's gowns (yes, we also saw Wicked 2 last week). You won't find this one in a grocery store, since it's such a specialty variety. So special that even my cousins in San Francisco who are radicchio devotees can't find it at their local farmers markets (instead, they fill their cooler with it every Thanksgiving when they visit so they can enjoy Valley Flora Rosalba from now until the new year). As far as radicchios go, Rosalba is a little high maintenance (also not unlike Glinda): it needs cold weather to turn pink, it's a little finnicky in wet weather, and it likes to head up in all kinds of unique ways (which means it's not very uniform but is still stunnifying, if I may borrow - or invent - a Glinda-ism). For all those reasons, we might end up short on it this week and if we do it's possible you'll see another new variety in your tote instead, Costarossa. This one comes in shocking pink: a beautiful foot-ball shaped head with vibrant magenta ribs and fuschia leaves. I've been delighting in this trial variety this Fall and hope to grow a little more of it next year to share with the world. This is the radicchio variety that my other cousin - who lives in NYC - stashed in her suitcase for the flight home, and thus the Valley Flora radicchio diaspora spans coast to coast...).

Both Rosalba and Costarossa make a stunning bowl of winter salad (remember to ribbon it up and soak it beforehand if you don't like the bitter flavor).

We'll be bringing you your final two CSA deliveries for the 2025 season this week and next week on our regular Wednesday/Saturday schedule. Mark your calendar!

• Last delivery for Coos Bay and Farm members will be Wednesday, December 10th
• Last delivery to Bandon and Port Orford on Saturday, December 13th

Enjoy the last bit of the season!

P.S. If you are one of the people who receives a 10.5 lb red cabbage this week, we sincerely apologize. We fully acknowledge that this could be overwhelming, or create space issues in your refrigerator, or throw your back out while you try to heft your vegetables home. We are pretty sure this is flood effect: all that new sediment from the March "disaster," transformed into four times more cabbage than usual. :)