Farm Happenings for October 16, 2019

Welcome to the world of October in the Midwest! Sunny, a bit chilly, and full of grasshoppers. The transition is in full gear here. Pictured above is Jen driving a tractor full of stakes we hauled out of the houses. We have the big job of tearing out all our summer greenhouses that hosted tomatoes and peppers, and replanting them with winter greens. Many of our greens are direct seeded, which means that if we want to avoid doing a lot of hand weeding in November, we do a preliminary step called stale bed germination. We want all the weeds in the top inch of soil to germinate before we seed our salad or spinach, so we create our beds, cover them with a sheet of row cover, then give them an inch of water. After 5-7 days, the weeds have germinated and stretched their stems to get to light, which makes them easy to kill with a backpack flame torch. Then we seed our wanted crop and have eliminated the first generation of weed competitors. There are other generations to follow, but we've saved many hours of labor. In terms of harvest, our tomatoes have slowed down suddenly and we are saying goodbye to them. We still have all kinds of peppers, and should keep them until a frost. We may even decide to cover them with a giant row cover if a frost threatens. All the summer fruits are slowing down. Luckily we are adding back the fall favorites: squash, fennel, cabbage, beets, and soon watermelon radishes. We hope you all our staying cozy, and a little spooky!