Dear Farm Community -

By now I’m sure you’ve seen and read about all of the destruction that Hurricane Helene brought to western North Carolina and Appalachia. We are extremely fortunate to that the hurricane altered its course and passed to the East of us. We had a few medium sized branches fall, our taller crops like sunflowers and okra got knocked around a bit by the wind, and our loofah tunnel collapsed (check out last week’s newsletter to see it pre-hurricane), but ultimately we came out of it all unscathed. We are so thankful that our land, crops, and farmers are safe. We hope everybody reading this also made it through the storm safely. In the coming weeks as those affected come more online we’ll share a few ways that you can help out farmers in North Carolina who weren’t so lucky.

Because of the hurricane we pushed back some farm work that was planned, including transplanting into those prepped greenhouses. We’ll be getting to work on those this week and the delay shouldn’t affect our fall harvest schedule too much. Speaking of fall harvests…. SO much we’re stoked to see back at the markets! Collards and frisée made their fall debut, and our sweet potato crop is abundant. Beautifully colored watermelon radishes and beans also made their return this weekend.

Despite our limited time for field work and harvesting this week and the closure of Freedom Farmers Market (we’re back in full swing this week!) we had an awesome two markets at Morningside and Athens last weekend. Maybe it was the beautiful sunshine that reminded everybody how good it feels to get out and about on a Saturday morning, but we were as busy as we’ve ever been!

We still have some spots open for those of you who want to learn how to make a dried floral wreath! This workshop is two weeks away on Saturday, October 19th at Bishop Park. You can get your shopping done and learn a new skill all in one go! Hope you’ll join us, you can sign up at the link below.

sign up for wreath workshop

As I share with you a few recipes for your shares this week, let me also direct you to admire the new Recipes section of our website. Slowly we will be building this out to include all of the recipes we’ve linked in our newsletters over the last two years with more and more added as time goes on! While it’s a bit bare bones right now we hope you’'ll enjoy seeing it evolve. Just like the food we grow and the personal connections we make, this project will be one that takes time to do right - most good things are! Our hope is to make it a robust resource of high-quality recipe favorites that can guide you in cooking whatever produce you pick up at market or get in your CSA :)

So here we go! We’re getting into root veggie season and you’ll be able to choose between carrots and beets in your shares this week, two of the sweetest roots around. Flipping through the pages of Joshua McFadden’s Six Seasons cookbook today, two recipes stood out as just perfect for y’all to try this week. Use those beets to cook up a wonderful warm tossed salad with Roasted Beets, Avocado, and Sunflower Seeds. If carrots make their way home with you, try out this Grated Carrot Salad with Grilled Scallions, Walnuts, and Burrata. Ooh la la!!

We hope you whip up something delicious this week! Feel free to tag us in any food pics on instagram (@diamondhillfarm) - we love to see what y’all are cooking!

Wishing you joy,
Diamond Hill Farmers

get cookin’ with our veggies:

sign up for a farm box