This week’s harvest: broccoli, cabbage, tomatoes, basil, cucumbers, squash, arugula, kale, chard, carrots, beets, beans, eggplant, pepper, dill, parsley, onions, garlic

Wow, what a share! I hope you’ve been enjoying your harvest outside on the deck with family and friends as we have. This is my favorite time of year, when all we do on the farm is bring in the produce and share in the beauty with visitors.

Pete and Fresh Pressed will again be selling their awesome oils at the CSA pickup this week.  Pete and Anna go every year to the Masciantonio olive groves in Caprafico, Abruzzo to help with the harvest and pressing. The family has 4500 trees and a state-of-the-art frantoio (olive mill). Their organically produced olive oils have won numerous awards internationally and are the perfect accompaniment to our wonderful organic produce. We find they are affordable with unbeatable flavor.

We also have a fresh batch of Linda’s wonderful zucchini parsley soup and her incredible salsa for sale packed with our roasted tomatoes, peppers, garlic and cilantro. If you haven’t tried it yet, the flavors are incredible.

After linking the NYTimes articles last week about the difficulties of making a living as small-scale farmers, this week I must include the reply in the Huffington post. Of course it is emotional because the path has been so hard, yet we continue to walk down it. Yes, we talk all the time about returning to the islands to live as scuba guides, but for me, I don’t have much of a choice in the matter. It’s in my blood to grow vegetables. I love the challenge of getting better at it every year in Durango’s climate. We enjoy the constant brainstorming as to how to adapt to make it more profitable and prevent being overworked. If I can teach Raina anything from the farm, it’s that success and financial wealth are far from the same thing. Our culture will only enforce the opposite. These days, sharing a meal from the farm with loved ones makes me feel like the wealthiest person in the world.

Linley, Peter, Reid