Last night’s rain made for a sloppy morning of harvesting in the mud, but luckily we saw it coming and got most of the harvesting done on Monday. We saved collards and lettuce for today as we always want to greens to be as fresh as possible. I was excited to see the broccoli was ready to start harvesting yesterday. We didn’t have enough for everyone this week, but there will be more next week!
It finally feels a little bit like fall. We know the fall weather wont last long, and so we are getting ready for winter. As the warm season comes to an end, there is a lot of cleaning up to do in the field. We are disassembling irrigation, pulling out drip tape, and turning the soil for winter. We want to bury any plant residue and kill the weeds that might be growing. Then we plant cover
crops to protect the soil from washing away in the rain and hopefully out compete any weeds that pop up. There comes a point in the fall when the soil stays wet until April. The trouble is that this point in time can only be identified in retrospect. Was last night’s rain the moment, or will it dry out again? Once the ground is wet we cannot work the soil with the tractor, and this work of cleaning up is over until spring. We like to get the field cleaned up as much as possible because it helps to manage insect pests, weeds, and plant diseases. And doing it now means we aren’t playing catch up in the spring.
We did not do strawberries this year because we were really frustrated with them. We had been having a hard time sourcing high quality seedlings that didn’t get completely trashed in the shipping process. It was good timing; there was a major disease problem with the plant stock last fall, so I am glad we took a pass. For next year’s crop, instead of ordering strawberry plugs, we instead chose to order tips. Strawberry tips are cuttings taken from runners. They must be put in soil trays immediately and kept damp so they will root. Our strawberry tips arrived in early September. We had moderate success rooting the cuttings, and I am glad ordered extras since it was our first time and I didn’t know what to expect. They have been growing out in the greenhouse for the past month and yesterday we planted a whole high tunnel with strawberries. Spring 2026 should be a sweet one. We have also decided to only grow strawberries under cover. The field grown strawberries have too many disease problems.
Small Shares
- Bibb Romaine Head Lettuce
- Napa Cabbage
- Collards
- Eggplant
- Summer Squash
- Butternut Squash
Full Shares
- Bibb Romaine Head Lettuce
- Napa Cabbage
- Collards
- Broccoli
- Juliet tomato
- Summer Squash
- Butternut Squash
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