More cool season crops are starting to mature and we should have something new in the box every week for the month of October. This week there is kohlrabi for everyone and komatsuna for the full shares. Next week I am expecting to harvest napa cabbage. The broccoli has started to form heads so I am thinking it’s about two weeks away. Three weeks, maybe two if we are lucky, for carrots. And we are still planting fall and winter crops, so there is still plenty of good eating left in the year.
We got more rain last week, nearly two inches this time! That has been a relief. We planted our winter cover crop seed ahead of the rain and the young shoots are coming up. The cool mornings have been beautiful to work in. It is nearly October and things would be starting to slow down, if it weren’t for the weed “situation”.
It is hard to convey the magnitude of the blunder that was letting the millet in the cover crop go to seed last year. We’ve spent many tens of hours hand weeding. It is work we wouldn’t normally have to do. It’s work we shouldn’t have to do. But we are getting it done, little by little. I’d say we are three quarters of the way through the field (hooray!). Everything must be weeded once so the millet doesn’t go to seed again. As it is, I’m sure we will have to leave this section unplanted next year so we can keep flushing out the millet.
Of course, weeding isn’t the only thing we are doing, even if it feels like it is. Randy has been doing tractor work in the pond to get it to hold more water. We are hoping that if it holds more water it wont dry out in the spring until the salamanders are ready for terrestrial life. We have also been re-potting and tending native plants in the greenhouse. I will continue to have native plants for sale at the Cooper Young Community Farmers Market for the next several weeks. Fall is a great time to plant perennials. It tends to be less stressful for the plants compared to spring planting.
Small Shares
- Curly Kale
- Arugula
- Summer Squash
- Kohlrabi
- Juliet tomato
Full Shares
- Curly Kale
- Arugula
- Summer Squash
- Kohlrabi
- Komatsuna
- Eggplant
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