Crop List: Carrots, Rainbow Carrots, Fingerling Potatoes, Huckleberry Gold Potatoes, German Butterball Potatoes, Beets, Turnips, Radishes, Parsley, Dill, Basil, Cilantro, Onions, Winter Squash, Garlic, Leeks, Kale, Shallots, Maybe Broccoli, Cauliflower, Daikon Radish, Watermelon Radish, Tomato, Cabbage, Cosmic Mix and/or Summer Squash 

Holy large crop list. This may be our largest share ever. I'm not even sure how it is going to fit on the tables so please have some patience with your site hosts as they navigate the sheer volume of this delivery and help you get your 2026 share purchase complete.
We have had 3 amazing growing seasons in a row. But this one was unbelievable. We still haven't had a killing frost. There were no light frosts all summer, which can and usually do occur a couple times during the summer. The plants didn't have any stress from cold or smoky skies. The garden thrived. Our crew was amazing and stayed on top of the weeds. Honestly...great weather, enough water, a weeded garden, an amazing crew and the best customers, Jed and I can't really ask for much more in the farming realm! We feel blessed.
This wraps up our 29th season of growing for The People of The Tetons. That sounds like a big number. I think Cosmic Apple has aged well. Many things have gotten easier and more organized. I think our shares have gotten more diverse, veggie wise and the quality has gotten much better then in our early years. We still truly strive to grow you the best food we possibly can. One thing remains the same for 29 years...we constantly work to improve the soil to grow the best food for you.  As the soil has improved so has the nutrient density in your produce. We seriously think the veggies are getting better with the farm's age!

I don't know why...but I am feeling incredibly nostalgic writing this newsletter. Sometimes the flow of the seasons gets me. Spring is all full of hope...summer  is fiery and fast...fall is about letting go, looking back and celebrating.
Jed and I are so moved by the sheer number of incredible people we've met through this job. The thing is...99.999% of the people over the years have been beyond awesome. (The .001%?...I wish them the best!) The farm has created an incredible community. I even remember my parents coming to visit in the early 2000's. They came to a veggie pick up with me. My dad said..."everyone is just so nice". He had to explain to me it wasn't that way in his line of business. Him saying that has stuck with me. It's YOU! Our Cosmic Apple CSA members. You are just the best. Many of you have supported us for years! Some of you are new...we love growing for each of you. We care deeply about your health. You keep us going, we hope your relationship with the farm feels as mutually beneficial to you as it does to us.
Thanks for being willing to pick up each week, your actions speak to your commitment to your health, local farms and our world. Thanks for coming along on this journey with us. We hope you noticed a difference in the flavor of our veggies to those in the supermarket.
We hope you felt deeply nourished.

"Round the table
Peace and joy prevail.
May all who share
this season's delight
enjoy countless more."
-Chinese blessing

Be well until we meet again!

Sign Up NOW for 2026 and get a Free Cosmic T-shirt or Hat!
We have started our 2026 CSA membership drive! If you sign up for 2026's CSA at a pickup location before the 2025 CSA ends, you will receive a free organic cotton t-shirt or hat! Your site host will have sign-up sheets, or you can get one here: 2026 Sign up Link. 
Signing up early to gets you the best prices and guarantees the pickup location/day you really want...and did I mention the free swag?! Shirts available in Men's, Women's, Kid's, Toddler and Baby Onesies! We have some sizes in our classic purple tee, but the sizes we sold out of were replaced with black shirts with our logo in bright yellow. It was just time to mix it up a bit!  We don't have too many hats left...so sign up early if that's your style.
​The farm benefits from you signing up now...remember CSA's are mutually beneficial to you and your farmers! We get money to do winter projects and have money to purchase seeds before the growing season starts. You guarantee yourself a season of fresh, nutritious veggies that you don't have to go to the grocery store for...Cosmic veggies taste better too. Also, the price goes up as winter goes on...so save yourself some money!
If you purchase a share online, you must show your receipt to the site host to get some swag. To pay at the pickup please print out this form, follow the link below or fill out a form the site host will have for you and bring a check or cash.
​Paying online (Link Here) will incur a 4% card fee. Cash or check saves you money!
We have a payment plan available too! See the form for more info.
NO VENMO FOR SHARE PURCHASES.

Also, please consider a donation to help purchase shares for the Teton Valley Food Pantry. In 2025 The Cosmic Apple Community purchased 13 shares for the Pantry. Let's do it again. Any amount helps! You can just add it to your payment. Also, you can donate directly to the TVFP and tell them the money is for Cosmic Apple Shares. And THANK YOU!!
"All living beings are struggling for life, May they all have enough food today." Thich Nhat Hanh

​Do you want to stock up on some meat or cheese before we stop seeing you every week? Just send me an email with what you would like, and I am happy to put an order together for you to make sure you get what you want. Even if it is only a couple items...or more! I am happy to do it.

Crop List: Cosmic Mix, Radishes, Turnips, Carrots, Fingerling Potatoes, Broccoli, Cauliflower, Bok Choy, Head Lettuce, Summer Squash, Slicing Cucumbers, Pickling Cucumbers, Winter Squash, Garlic, Yellow Onions, Shallots, Maybe Tomatoes, Broccoli and/or Cauliflower

Get ready for a haul. This week's share is going to be big. (PLEASE BRING BAGS...or boxes. We have been cleaned out. Ask your neighbors, dig in your pantry, look in the breakroom drawers! We'll take any extra, clean useable bags you can find!) But back to the veggies...LOTS! We are working at "full steam ahead" speed to harvest all the goodness out of the garden. Our beautiful little spot on Earth has yielded so much nutrition. It truly is a wonder how much food can be grown in a small space.
Remember back to June when the shares were so light and fluffy? Spring in the Tetons was asking us to eat light, quick and clean our systems out. The seasons have changed. We are now being asked to stock up for winter...put the pounds on, fill the larder, slow down and cook meals that take more time.
We realize you are getting many pounds of veggies this share. The good news is you don't have to eat it all this week. Most will keep well in your fridge. Focus on the treats that won't keep for a long time. Next week will likely be big too!
Here's some storage tips for the items that will keep longer then a week:
Turnips and Carrots- Break tops off. Store in a bag in your fridge. Taking the tops off keeps the sugars in the root and won't leave you with moldy tops in your bag.
Potatoes- Keep really well in a plastic bag in the fridge. 
Winter Squash and Garlic- Keep at room temperature, out of direct sunlight. You can put them on your counter, or in a cabinet. They will do fine in a box in your basement too! A paper bag works if you want to keep them dust free somewhere. Keep them out of air tight plastic, squash and garlic need to "breath".
Onions- Our onions are not "cured" so they need refrigeration. Break the tops off and store in a bag.

Other then winter squash and garlic...most of the roots will do well in a bag in a cool environment. A bag keeps them from drying out. 35-40 degrees is perfect. Keep them above freezing!  Also keep them dark. If you are out of fridge space, a cooler in your garage or crawl space will work. Just watch the temps and make sure to protect the cooler from getting to cold or too hot!

Sign Up NOW for 2026 and get a Free Cosmic T-shirt or Hat!
We have started our 2026 CSA membership drive! If you sign up for 2026's CSA at a pickup location before the 2025 CSA ends, you will receive a free organic cotton t-shirt or hat! Your site host will have sign-up sheets, or you can get one here: 2026 Sign up Link. Signing up early to gets you the best prices and guarantees the pickup location/day you really want...and did I mention the free swag?! Shirts available in Men's, Women's, Kid's, Toddler and Baby Onesies! We have some sizes in our classic purple tee, but the sizes we sold out of were replaced with black shirts with our logo in bright yellow. It was just time to mix it up a bit!  We don't have too many hats left...so sign up early if that's your style.
​The farm benefits from you signing up now...remember CSA's are mutually beneficial to you and your farmers! We get money to do winter projects and have money to purchase seeds before the growing season starts. You guarantee yourself a season of fresh, nutritious veggies that you don't have to go to the grocery store for...Cosmic veggies taste better too. Also, the price goes up as winter goes on...so save yourself some money!
If you purchase a share online, you must show your receipt to the site host to get some swag. To pay at the pickup please print out this form, follow the link below or fill out a form the site host will have for you and bring a check or cash.
​Paying online (Link Here) will incur a 4% card fee. Cash or check saves you money.
We have a payment plan available too! See the form for more info.
NO VENMO FOR SHARE PURCHASES.
​
We will go until week 18! If anything changes, we will let you know, but right now our goal is still to get the garden completely harvested by the end of next week. It feels daunting right now...but a goal is a goal!

Also, please consider a donation to help purchase shares for the Teton Valley Food Pantry. In 2025 The Cosmic Apple Community purchased 13 shares for the Pantry. Let's do it again. Any amount helps! You can just add it to your payment. Also, you can donate directly to the TVFP and tell them the money is for Cosmic Apple Shares. And THANK YOU!!

​Do you want to stock up on some meat or cheese before we stop seeing you every week? Just send me an email with what you would like, and I am happy to put an order together for you to make sure you get what you want. Even if it is only a couple items...or more! I am happy to do it.

Lunch on the Farm this week: Potato Leek Soup; Pad Thai
Recipe Ideas: Carrots, Potatoes Roasted with Onions & Garlic; Curry Carrot Soup; Honey Roasted Potatoes; Roasted Carrot & Sweet Dumpling Squash Bisque ​

Lunch on the Farm this week: Merav's Carrot Soup with Cheese bread; Sausage Kale Soup
Recipe Ideas: Cilantro Lime Vinaigrette; Speedy Tomato-Cilantro Sauce; Dill Cucumber Salad; Butter Dill Potatoes​

Crop List: Cosmic Mix, Summer Squash, Sugar Snaps, Shallots, Fingerling Potatoes, Beets, Basil, Tomatoes, Fennel  Maybe Slicing Cucumber and/or Pickling Cucumbers

Cosmic Apple By the Numbers, Facts and Measurables!
Are you a numbers person? Here's some of the measurable things we know about Cosmic Apple. These figures will help to make the farm a more tangible place.

 The farm is 50 acres total. The garden is 8 acres. 19 acres are in pasture for the cows. 1/2 acre for the breeding pigs, 2 acres in buildings, sheds and greenhouses, and 12 acres in wildland, non-production for the natural influence. 3 1/2 acres in required buffer to protect from chemical drift from the neighbors.
The 8 acre veggie garden is divided into 2 sections. Each section has beds which are 475 feet long. A football field is 360 feet long! It is no small task to weed one bed! We have about 126 beds this year. Each bed has 1-4 rows of plants in it. Some of the the items in the garden: 18 rows of potatoes. 12 rows of sunflowers.  7 beds of summer, winter squash and cucumbers. 4 rows of onions. 18 rows of carrots.
18 rows were garlic that has been harvested. We will save 3000 garlic bulbs for our seed for next year's crop. The bulbs will be broken up to yield about 14,250 garlic cloves. Each will clove will grow into a bulb for next year.
We irrigate the garden and pastures with a hand line of irrigation pipe. We move it two times a day. It takes about 45 minutes for each move. There are 30 lengths of pipe and they put down about 2” of water every 12 hours.
We have 2 breeding pigs, and 10 "teenagers". The teenagers are about 5 months old. They will be butchered at about 8 months. We have 75 new chickens that will start laying in November! We will be getting about 75 eggs a day when the hit their stride. There are about 70 hens in the old flock...who have pretty much given up laying eggs.
For cows we have a total of 19! The most we've ever had. 
1 cat, Dumbledore, to keep the non counted mice and ground squirrels in check.
The farm is run by Jed and Dale. We have 3 children (Dagan, Axel and Roxanne) and 1 dog (Cosmo).The farm employs 13 people. (There is some crossover and a few folks have more then one position.) 1 wash station manager, 1 field crew manager, 6 field crew employees, 1 truck driver, 5 market employees, 1 tomato caretaker, 1 evening chore person who does chores M-F, 1 part time chore person for Saturday and Sunday mornings.  6 volunteer site hosts. And about 5-9 volunteers per week.
We now have 5 greenhouses. 2 are used for starting seeds and baby plants to get the garden going. 3 are for tomatoes, basil and calendula.
We do 2 CSA deliveries a week, supplying about 175 shares each week. If each full share feeds 4 people, then we are feeding 700 individuals each week. Based the 2020 populations of Teton Counties (ID and WY) we feed about 2% of the people of the Tetons, just through the CSA! We also do 3 markets a week.
When we harvest something like bok choy or head lettuce, we need 175 heads to get enough for one CSA delivery. We need about 350 total to do all the deliveries in one week.
Already in 2025 we have harvested:
1820.57 lbs. of Cosmic Mix
2136.56 lbs. of Peas (Sugar Snaps and Shell Peas)
5108.68 lbs. of Summer Squash
2852 Heads of Bok Choy
We are just starting to get into the heavy things!
We have 5 tractors; the newest one is from 1970! (Jed why do we have so many tractors?) Our favorite tractor implement is the water-wheel transplanter. It allows us to plant up to 1000 plants in 9 minutes with 5 people.
We have one amazing delivery truck, named Babe. We have been driving it for 19 years and it still runs great, feels safe and makes us smile. There are 2 pickups at the farm for hauling and projects.
We know of 4 weddings that are a result of meetings at Cosmic Apple!
Cosmic Apple started in 1996. This is our 29th season of growing the best food for the People of the Tetons!!
Whew. That was fun!

Lunch on the Farm this week: Burritos with beets, summer squash carrots and Idaho Salsa; Pad Bai
Recipe Ideas: Summer Squash Fennel Soup; Fennel and Potato Gratin; Fall Fennel and Potato Roast; Oven Roasted Beets & Potatoes;  ​Honey Roasted Potatoes 

Crop List: Tomatoes, Summer Squash, Cucumbers, Pickling Cucumbers, Green Beans, Sugar Snap Peas, Kale, Radish, Carrots, Maybe Shell Peas, Cosmic Mix, Basil, and/or Sunflowers

There has been a definite shift in the air since last week's newsletter. Last week started out hot, dry and on par for this summer's weather. Wednesday and Thursday's rain was much needed and a relief. Gratefully it was warm while it rained. Temps in the high 50's with rain are so much easier for dexterity then rain in the low 40's. Spirits on the farm stayed high with the temperatures! 
The greenhouses never heated up without the solar gain last week, so they slowed down a bit. Everything should bounce back with all the warm weather in the upcoming forecast.
Coming out of the rainy weather, has the farm feeling different. Fall is creeping in. The longer nights are causing things to slow down a bit. The mornings have a crispness to them. A light coat was desired to walk the dog the other night. I've given up on my game of trying to keep the house from heating up during the day, the nights are now long enough that it sufficiently cools down. I may have even put on a pair of slippers...there could be no clearer sign of fall, then cold feet!
​
This is about the time we all start to wonder how many more weeks of shares will we have?! We don't know! Our goal every year is to make it to 16 weeks. This year week 16 will be easy-peasy thanks to our earliest start ever on June 3rd! The garden is still packed with produce and it will take us some time to get it all harvested. There is no frost in the forecast (YAY!) so we will just keep enjoying the summer treats until they are no longer. It's pretty easy to say we will at least go until week 17 or 18 right now. There is always the disclaimer of less shares then anticipated depending on the weather, I know...I'm so non-committal! But, I'm not in charge, Mother Nature is. This nifty blog is the best place to get your info about our schedule! I promise to let you know dates as soon as we know.
​
We did have a marvelous first on the farm last week. Our mama cow Star, had Cosmic Apple's first ever twins! All mamas and babes are healthy and we now have 5 calves total to watch frolic and grow.

​Lunch on the Farm this week: Pitas with Tzatziki, hard boiled eggs and tomato; Ginger beef stir fry 
Recipe Ideas: Kale Dip with Snap Peas; Wilted Greens and Basil (Kale page); Tomato Basil Chicken; Panzanella Salad; ​Tomato Basil Salad 

We have lots of extra goodies available at your pick up. If you want something specific, please email me and I will make sure it is in the cooler, reserved just for you. Dinner just got easier!
The coolers at your site are stocked with a selection of Lifeline Cheese and Cosmic Apple Pork and Beef (listed below). I don't send every cut every week, they simply won't all fit!
​Pork Available: Grandpa's Sausage, Breakfast Sausage, Pork Chops, Shoulder Roast, Spare Ribs, Boneless Loin Roast, Hock, Leaf Fat, Tenderloin and Back Fat
Beef Available: Stew Meat, Sirloin Tip Roast, Round Roast, Flat Iron Roast and Beef Fat
Hunters and Huntresses: We have pork fat for your wild game sausage making. Let me know if you want to order any and I can send it to your pick up location.
​

WASH YOUR VEGGIES!!
​
Bring Bags to pick-ups!

If you can't make it to pick up your veggies, send a friend!
Missed shares are forfeited for the week. 
​
Members get 10% off at the Farmer's Markets!
​Farm To Fork Market: Saturday, October 4th, 2-5, Center for the Arts
The Driggs Market: Fridays 9-1 (ends 10/3)
The People's Market: Wednesdays 4-7 (ends 9/24)
Jackson Hole Farmer's Market: Saturdays 8-12 (ends 9/26)


Questions? Comments? Recipes to share? [email protected]