This is a shout-out to all the farmers, staff, and administration at the Poughkeepsie Farm Project (PFP). Thank you for all the great produce this year and for making the weekly pick-up of veggies the highlight of the hunkered week!. COVID-19 be damned.
Veggies A to Z: A Shadorma Chain for the PFP
Acorn squash
and baby bok choy,
cilantro
and carrots.
Dill and dandelion greens
eggplant, escarole.
Thank you to
all at Poughkeepsie
Farm Project
for the greens
the veggies, flowers and herbs.
Seasonal delights!
Futsu and
fennel, garlic scapes.
Hakurei
and red hot
jalapeno. Kale (two sorts)
kohlrabi and leeks.
Lettuces,
melon and napa
cabbage, red
and yellow
onions, pea shoots and parsnips.
Potatoes, all kinds.
Radishes,
and new kinds of squash
as well as
butternut
and acorn. Spinach so fresh
and so sweet, Swiss chard.
Scallions,
heirloom tomatoes –
and roma
for sauce and
green to ripen late season.
Violet turnips.
Juicy ripe
watermelon and,
new to me,
yokatta na.
And finally, zucchini
Surprisingly good.
Many thanks
to all of the farmers
admin and
staff. Your work
made our hunkering healthy
and kept us well fed.
We picked up our last haul of the regular season yesterday – a bonus pick-up for the early bird sign up for next season.
As always a great basic bag plus extras. (I went for butternut and leeks but the choices were many. The butternuts from the farm have been the best I have ever tasted.)
What a treat it has been all through the late spring, summer, and fall – every week a new pick up of freshly dug, cut, grown, pulled veggies.
A true pandemic-induced lifestyle upgrade.
Before the season kicked into full gear we took the CSA two-week May share and loaded up with early season greens and veggies. Delicious.
This is what is wonderful about it:
Freshness Taste and Quality
The produce always looked great, was fresh, clean and ready for the kitchen. It looked good and by golly it tasted great. Last week’s spinach, for example, was just so sweet and tender.
Variety
Everything from A to Z literally – over the season there was something for every letter of the alphabet (exception Q, U and X) and often several.
And thanks for all the great recipe ideas.
Serendipity
Apart from all the other best parts – this was the best part. Until you got the email just before pick-up started you never quite knew what you were going to get. OK – so it’s late August and you can expect tomatoes, but what sort and what else? The basic haul was usually a good balance of root and leaf. Always something green.
But then on top of the 5 or 6 veggies that were pre-selected, there was the choice – usually two from a list of 6 or 7 others. And that was just the half-share. Lots of fun deciding what to pick, what to try and what to load up on. It’s made for fun menu planning and cooking all season.
Beyond the actual produce – thank you for making the outdoor pickup process pleasant and painless! And thank you for always being responsible and responsive.
Of course, the PFP is more than a personal convenience provided just for me and about 500 other lucky families. As well as CSA (community supported agriculture) shares, they offer educational programming in farming, gardening and cooking. They also donate thousands of pounds of food to shelters and emergency food providers and serve to reduce food insecurity in the area. Take a look at their website to find out more. The PFP is a neighborhood treasure.
All the photos are from the PFP and their emails.
Love seeing the harvest from last November. Cheers!!
That was a long list of healthy veggies.
These are so beautiful they almost make me want to try a farm share! I know for some people the fun is not knowing what you will get and being forced to try new recipes.
My grandmother was from Newburgh and my niece is at Vassar so I feel almost as if this is my neighborhood farm too!
The PFP is actually at Vassar Farm.
Bright colors of health!
They deserve to succeed with publicity photos like those. My mouth waters. We get some wonderful fruit and veg from the Fulham Palace Walled Garden when the barrow is there – but it’s hit and miss (one of the joys of visiting). Nothing like this.
It really has been a strange bonus from these hunkered and pandemic months. And now we are signed up for next year as well.
We wrapped up our share of the CSA two weeks ago since we forgo the winter offerings of meat. We don’t get any choices, nor do I know until I exchange my bag for a new one what we will get. Nonetheless I loved it as much as you did yours. My favorite surprises were two kinds of cauliflower, one orange and one that looked like it was from outer space.
So good to see an organization like PFP get some recognition. And everyone there jut seems so didicated and smart. They do such great work for Poughkeepsie. And yes – their veggies are the BEST!
Beautifully presented, Josie. You made my mouth water.
You just can’t beat well-grown veggies!
As the co-recipient of all of this delectable produce, I second everything you have written here. The definition of cornucopia, week after week!
I can’t help with the U and X, but I can suggest Quince for next year, and maybe someone else can come up with U and X fruits or veggies to complete your “alphabet soup.”
I realize that there is quince but doubt the PFP can grow a few trees that quickly. Can always cheat with eXcellent for X and I should have utilized “uncured onions” for the U.
We love the PFP too! And they have done such a good job with Covid closing down the distribution one week when there was a traceable connection and so on. And they are always so cheerful. Maybe working with vegetables makes you happier. But then they also work with customers….
Thank you PFP for a great season and see you in the spring!
What a great tribute! We were members from the first year of the PFP until 2018 when we wholly moved away. We have good produce in the Capital District, but nothing quite like the experience and sense of belonging that we had at the PFP. In addition to benefiting from all that good food, members can be proud that their subscription helps alleviate for insecurity, and helps educate future food growers too. Enjoy your bounty!
Thanks Laura I love their flexible, honor-based, fee structure and their commitment to education and the public good. And those veggies! Potatoes that really taste. There really is a difference. I haven’t had spuds taste so good since I grew my own and that was both backbreaking and a full-time battle with the Colorado beetle.
This is it! It’s a whole gestalt.
Not just the great veggies but ALL the things the PFP brings to the community. It’s something you want to be a part of because they are part of what you value in the community around you and give so much to it.
Go Poughkeepsie! Go PFP! You rock!
What an uplifting blog post! We picked a friend’s farm share for three weeks while they were traveling. Part of the fun is definitely the surprise of what ends up in your basket/bag/box each week. Love the photos and your poetic list of delicious plants. I did not recognize “Hakurei” or “yokatta na.” I will look them up… Hurrah for local farmers and the people who support them!!!
Thanks Will. Hakurei is a type of turnip white and quite delicious raw or cooked. Great crunch in a salad. Yokatta Na is an Asian green somewhere in between bok choy and swiss chard
And – yes. Cheers to the people working the land and bringing us such great fresh food.
All the photo credits belong to the Poughkeepsie Farm Project. Every week just before pick-up they send out a pic of what’s in your haul plus the selection from which you can make your choices.
Just when fresh vegetables couldn’t be made more beautiful, you find a way to bring out their loveliness and their fun. You have such an eye for composition and color! — Elizabeth