November 5, 2008 | Local Sources

I just picked up my produce from my CSA farm (Monroe Organic Farms) today, and I can’t help but be amused by the term “winter harvest share”. Granted, it’s not really winter yet, but indeed today was the first harvest after all of the farmers’ markets and the regular season CSA distributions have ended. And amazingly, I picked up more stuff today than fathomable.The great thing about the winter harvest (which runs from now through February) is you get many things that can be stored for awhile. The carrots pictured above will last for weeks in the refrigerator so that even when the carrots are no longer available (January time frame), I’ll still have farm fresh organic carrots grown in Colorado. Other produce like the butternut squash pictured above doesn’t even need to be refrigerated to store, and I can tell by the quantity of sweet potatoes and Yukon Gold potatoes that I’ll be set for months (including Thanksgiving dinner for fifteen). You don’t usually expect to get local fresh tomatoes or baby leaf lettuce at this time of year, but thanks to cold frames (greenhouses), many CSA farms are able to offer these vegetables right up until it’s really cold and snowy. In fact, the lettuce is better and more available now than it was 2 months ago.