Hi farm friends!
Fall is officially here. This time last year the frost arrived. We have been lucky so far to avoid that! Nonetheless, we will be gathering up our frost protecting row cover to prepare for the inevitable. With frost covering, we can protect our peppers, eggplants, and greens. We also have a very late experimental planting of beans that has tiny beans on it now, so we'll cover those too if frost comes. But I do hope that the frost stays away until those are ready.
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Our fall veggies this year are hit and miss. We sadly lost all our cauliflower and broccoli to rodents shortly after we transplanted our seedlings. Our beets had poor germination and succumbed to weeds. Our yellow onions this year, you might have noticed, are quite tiny and in small quantity because they also fell to a high weed pressure. We do, however, have cabbages on their way, fall carrots, parsnips, kohlrabi, turnips, winter radish, fennel, winter squash and fingerling potatoes. And tons of garlic of course. Each season imparts its own lessons, but as much as we can learn and apply the knowledge to the next season, there are always many things out of our control at the same time. "There's always next season" is the soothing mantra of the farmer this time of year
We started making our giant fall to-do list this week. Some of the list includes:
- Putting the field to rest: flail mowing, reshaping beds, removing tarps and drip tapes, adding compost for the spring
- Preparing beds for rhubarb and asparagus planting next spring
- Rising up the roll-up sides on our hoophouses, to improve air circulation
- Raising our third hoophouse further off the ground so it gives us the same height as our other two
- Cleaning, sorting, and planting garlic
That's just a few of the many items on the list. It's still a busy time, but with a new kind of energy that's exciting.
Veggie Highlights this Week
With the arrival of fall, the brassicas of the spring are making a reappearance. This week, we have something new: watermelon radish! For those who don't know, this is a radish that is grown for its storage capabilities - once harvested, it will last through the winter in cool dry conditions. It has a very thick skin to protect it. So, it needs to either be peeled, or very thinly sliced. After that, you can eat it just as you would a radish. You can also cook it - it adds colour and crunch to stir fries and pastas. I particularly love to slice it thinly and add it to salad - it is simply gorgeous.
We have started to bring in our winter squash this week - acorn, kabocha, and delicata!
Have I told you recently how much I love you, farm share friends? Your support means so much to us, it keeps us energized and hopeful on this marathon of the farm season. There are only 4 weeks of the farm share after this week - you have been with us for 16 weeks, sharing in our harvest. It's hard to describe just how much that means to us - thank you.
Happy eating,
Your farmer,
Kim
