Community Corner
Grown In Connecticut: An Overlap Of Summer And Fall Vegetables
What's Fresh At The Farmers' Markets This Week
The state is entering it's peak picking time when the summer crops overlap with fall and winter crops, according to Rick Macsuga of the Connecticut Department of Agriculture.
"This is a neat time of year because we're walking right into our fall vegetables."
Macsuga aid and that there is plenty more summer crops to be harvested but he did see some winter squashes at the markets this week.
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It has been a very good week for beans so we have green beans, wax beans, cranberry beans, yellow flat and green flat beans." Macsuga said. "I saw five different varieties at the markets this week, so if you're a bean fan, now's a good time go out and look."
Macsuga also said Stanley plums, which are used to make prunes, are also available.
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"It's probably our most abundant plum and we just started picking those this week," he said. The plums are about the size of an egg, and Macsuga said, "easy in, easy out."
Clapp pears are all done, Bartlett pears are coming in. "We'll have Bartletts for about two weeks and then we'll get into other varieties." And the same goes for apples, right now we're seeing ginger golds, Paula reds and Jersey macs and "we may sneak in another variety in a week or two."
Macsuga said peppers are still going strong and potatoes are being dug up by the bagful now.
He said, "this is the beginning of the real potato harvest. They were usually just digging up enough potatoes to get them through the day, now there's enough to be bagged."
Macsuga said the berries are dwindling and, "if you're a fan of blackberries, I would make haste," although fall raspberries are on deck.
What's available now:
Peppers: all kinds
Apples: ginger gold, Paula red, Jersey mac
Musk melon
Honeydew
Baby watermelons
Summer squash: all kinds
Winter squash: acorn, butternut, spaghetti
Sweet corn
Cucumbers
Peaches
Plums
Nectarines
Cabbages: red, yellow savoy
Beans: all kinds
Carrots
Potatoes: all kinds
Eggplant: all kinds
Tomatoes: all varieties
Beets
Kale
Swiss Chard
Okra
Parsnips
Scallions
Leeks
Onions
Where to find them:
The L&M Hospital Farmers’ Market is on Wednesdays from noon to 3:30 p.m. in the L&M Hospital Employees Parking Lot. WIC/Senior FMNP Accepted, SNAP/EBT.
The New London Field of Greens Farmers' Market is on Fridays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in Parade Plaza at 161 Water Street. WIC/Senior FMNP Accepted, SNAP/EBT.
The Waterford Farmers’ Market is every Saturday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Town Hall parking lot at 15 Rope Ferry Road. WIC/Senior FMNP Accepted.
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