September 29th, 2020
What’s in your share?
Endive
Arugula
Beans
Japanese Turnips
Bok Choy
Fingerling Potatoes
Rainbow Carrots
Onions
Chesnok Red Garlic
This week we thought we’d catch everyone up on what’s going on in the field these days. I considered writing about climate change, the fires out west, capitalism, or soil science but decided to keep it simple and bring you all along on a farm “walk about” as we like to call it. Today was our first cold, wet harvest of the fall. It’s crazy how much longer everything takes when there’s three inches of mud stuck to your boots, you’re soaked through to your panties, and you can’t feel your hands anymore. You’re actually using your mind at this point to move your fingers as you spray carrots and turnips, and run the choy, endive and arugula through three sinks of icy well water. And it’s still above 50 degrees. This season we decided against continuing the CSA into November since without adequate infrastructure it’s not easy washing and packing shares when hoses are frozen solid and the salad freezes before you can get it into everyone’s shares and back into the cooler again. Honestly, we have been craving cooler days with vests and hats; yet, by the end of today Lynn and Sam had to lie under a pile of blankets just to get warm again, after washing carrots for hours.
Last week we seeded the very last bed of the season to radishes, and finished planting the greenhouse to salad, spinach and arugula, which will hopefully find their way to you if all goes as planned. For the last month we’ve been clearing beds and seeding them to an annual cover crop mix of oats and peas. With nearly forty beds seeded, the intention is to add organic matter and nitrogen to our soil, suppress weeds and maintain soil structure by preventing erosion throughout the winter. It’s always a bummer when it rains 5 inches in an hour and all the love and compost you’ve applied to the beds has washed away into the next field down. We started earlier this year in order to better establish the cover crop before the first frost, and so far germination and overall growth is looking pretty sexy, with a solid stand of oats and peas already established in many beds.
We’re starting to winterize hoop houses, or at least think about it. The plastic on the caterpillar tunnels (the smaller tunnels we put up this spring) will have to come off before the snow starts falling, since the metal framing will not be able to bear it’s weight. The end walls will need some love to withstand the wind this winter, a recurrent anxiety of mine, actually maybe what I worry about most, wind and greenhouses. There have been many nights where I’m either standing outside or starring out my window just waiting for them to roll by down the street, wizard of oz style. The almost last task is to plant next year’s garlic crop. We’ll continue to grow out the seed from this year’s crop by carefully breaking up the heads of garlic into cloves, a perfect job to do inside watching a movie.
It’s hard to believe it’s almost October; just when we were feeling the burn, we’ve hit this season’s peak and are making our way towards the end. Leaving plenty of time to write haikus, to which I’ll leave you my most recent (based on a true story).
A terrible sound.
Raccoon in the chicken coop.
A worthless rooster.