Fall is probably my favorite season on the farm. I love the crisp, cool mornings, and the comfortable warmth of the afternoon. I also love the confluence of both summer, spring and winter vegetables. Spinach, radish, tomatoes, bell peppers and more all ready at once! Fall also marks the end of our planting season (except garlic) which runs from February through mid-September.
This fall in particular is exciting as we're trialing some new winter crops. We've become more and more interested in growing in the winter and think that there is a lot of opportunity to offer more than just storage crops like beets & carrots through the winter months. This year we're trialing winter green onions, spinach, cilantro, kale, komatsuna (sometimes called Japanese spinach), bok choy, tat soi, sorrel, lettuce and more. These crops have varying levels of cold hardiness but all should be able to survive into the winter.
Ultimately, our goal is to be able to offer a true winter CSA that runs from the late fall through February that has a mix of storage vegetables like beets, carrots, potatoes, and garlic and fresh vegetables like spinach, lettuce, kale & more. There's certainly a learning curve to all of this so we're starting small and trialing these crops, taking notes, and seeing what works within our system.
