Ever hear of the wooly-worms' ability to predict what sort of winter we can expect?  The wooly worm, or wooly bear caterpillar, is a fuzzy-looking fellow with black and brown bands down the length of it's body.  Supposedly, if your fall wooly worms have wider brown than black bands, you can expect a mild winter.  If your caterpillars have wider black than brown bands, you should expect a colder winter.  This morning I saw a nearly all-black wooly worm.  I had to get right up close and personal to him to see that he had the tiniest, thread-like brown stripes down his back.  Nasty winter, then?  I sure hope the caterpillars are terrible meteorologists!

Wednesday night could bring us the coldest weather we've seen since February.  November seems a little early for mid-twenties, but never out of the realm of possibility...and something to always be prepared for.  We're in the process of turning our little vegetable farm into what looks more like acres of sheets growing in the field, what with all the row covers we're setting out.

If it gets as cold mid-week as predicted, Wednesday may be our last day of the season for harvesting some of the more tender crops.  We need to move the last of the fennel by mid-week; even if I cover it up, the bulbs are likely to freeze out.  Fennel is on sale until it's gone - make a big batch of fennel broth and tuck it in your freezer (see recipe to the right).  Fennel broth is great for fish and seafood dishes!  Or lightly saute sliced fennel, cool, and freeze it to add to your favorite dishes later in the winter.

In the meantime, lots of new cool-season veggies this week!  The cauliflower is just starting to head up, and we have the first spinach of the season.  Brussel sprouts are starting to size up now in smallish quantities, with many more sprouts to come.  We're frequently asked why we don't sell sprouts by the stalk.  I realize it's more impressive to get a whole stalk of sprouts, but if we whack the whole plant off at the base, there's no more sprouts.  If we pick the sprouts off the stalk a few at a time, we can continue to harvest brussel sprouts for you for a few more months, if not all winter long.   Or maybe we sort of masochistically enjoy teasing half-frozen mini cabbages off of half-frozen sprout stalks on half-frozen mornings with half-frozen blue fingers?

Our egg supply is rapidly dwindling.  I say this all the time, and I'm going to say it again - eggs (real eggs, not factory eggs) are a seasonal item.  Just as seasonal as those heirloom tomatoes in July.  Yes, eggs have a season!  Now you know.

 Unfortunately that season is not now.  Chickens are extremely photo-sensitive.  It's not the temperatures that regulates a hen's production, it's the number of daylight hours she experiences.  In early spring, as the days begin to lengthen again, the hens start to produce many more eggs.  By late spring or early summer, when the days are longest, egg production is at it's peak.  By the fall equinox, when days drop down below 12 hours of daylight, they slow down considerably.  A bit farther into fall, they begin their annual molt, which slows production even more.  November through January, they might as well be on holiday driving their RV's to Arizona.

We're lucky in that we live far enough south that we get a few eggs over the next few months.  Many chicken-keepers farther north receive no eggs at all until spring.  Still, it is just a very few, about one-tenth what we might gather in the spring.  Every time I list something below as "limited quantities," I receive about ten times as many requests for that item as I normally would. 

(...just had a thought...maybe that's a good way to move the inevitable gluts of zucchini in June?...but now you're on to me...) 

We're glad you love our eggs so much, but there are never enough for everyone the next few months.  Eggs are first-come, first served.  We fill requests in the order in which they are received.  We're limiting orders to one dozen per request.  When we're out for the week, we're out.  We don't take egg reservations 2-4 weeks in advance because my head spins at the thought of trying to fairly coordinate that - not to mention it's a bit ridiculous to expect what a living creature might be up to in another three weeks.

Eggs are in short supply, but we do have a full selection of fabulous late fall veggies!