There’s still a lot of it!
The second half of the main CSA season is well underway. Aside from overwintering crops like garlic and onions, and a few more successions of greens, we have all of this year's seed in the ground. September is calm and cool, providing the best weather we’ve had all season to get after long harvest days. The gentle weather can only mean one thing: There’s still a lot of it!
That’s right, we’re still going strong! Mid-November is still a ways away, meaning all sorts of large garden projects could pop up in the meantime. We expect all the storage beets that are currently plumping up will take up a bit of time to harvest, top, clean, and tuck away in the cooler.
This week we started out the Monday harvest by pulling five-hundred pounds of potatoes out of the ground. Woohoo! Between All-Blue, All-Red, and Carola potatoes, we scooped up a whopping five-hundred pounds from four beds between the three of us using two hands in one sitting. Just in time for the cold, too, because who doesn’t like potato soup on chilly fall days?
We had a bit of trouble turning out turnips this week. All the root maggots seem to be on the same page, making just a few bunches of turnips a bit of a puzzle to be solved. Luckily the bok choy next door is nothing but big and beautiful.
The head lettuce is presenting a puzzle, too. While the Summer Crisp and Gem head lettuce continue to turn out beautifully, Mini Romaine has been on the struggle bus pretty consistently this season. We just don’t…. get each other. Nevertheless, there’s still a lot of it, so the next few weeks might be a good time to say goodbye to the wonderful, not-so-wonderful Romaine.
When I say wonderful, not-so-wonderful, I mean that when it does turn out as intended, this lettuce is capital W-Wonderful; unfortunately, whether it's the soil, the growth temperature, or another extraneous factor, certain crops just don’t work out. For some reason, Mini Romaine has been more susceptible to disease than the other lettuce we are growing on the farm. So, we’re probably gonna look into other varieties for next season. Sorry, Romaine. I’ll still put you on my BLTs while I can.
In other Hawkins Farm garden news: The weeds are still trying. While it is objectively a chore to have to keep up with weeds as they attempt to take up too much room in the field, it can be entertaining to think about how much they continue to persist throughout the course of the year. On Thursday, Kimberly and I spent some time clearing weeds out of the cabbage patch, coming up against all sorts of thistles, ragweed, and redroot pigweed.
This being my first season on a farm, things are still coming in as a fresh surprise to me. The weeds are still trying! It’s all they do, really. They work and work until their little selves start forming flowers in order to spread their seeds every which way. Unless we put a stop to it, this is how it goes. It can be quite astounding after a while to watch such an example of nature’s natural persistence in action. There sure is a lot of it out here!
Let’s talk about something there’s not a lot of. Pizza night is coming to an end next weekend! Weep! Our guest chef will be Nina from Copper Spoon. Nina has been ready to bring it for weeks now, so you may as well just bring your appetite and get ready to try all the tasty options next week. Having found out that we have been selling Annina Eggplant, Nina knew she needed to make you an eggplant parmesan pizza with the Annina Eggplant. You can also expect something sweet with pears. Also, cheesy bread dropped this past weekend, and you shouldn’t be surprised to hear that it’s good.
Seriously, it’s the last week. Don’t miss out. I’m gonna eat three pizzas and you should too.
-Alex
