If implements were kitchen tools

We did it!  We shaped 40 beds, each 180 feet long, for Spring 2021.  In order for us to plant anything before mid-April, we have to make the beds in the fall.  In spring, the soil is too wet.  It is a huge weight off my mind and my soul to have these beds shaped and ready to go.  They got a good soaking over the weekend.  Now we wait a couple weeks for the weeds to sprout, then cover the beds with tarps for the winter.  At the end of February, when we start spring planting, the beds will be weed free and ready to go.

If implements were kitchen tools

The tractor held out for bed shaping, but the disk harrow barely made it.   The disk harrow is pulled behind the tractor, causing sets of steel disks set at a slight angle to cut through the soil.  Think about a bunch of pizza cutters lined up in a row, blow that up to tractor size, and you’ve got the best approximation I think of right now for a disk harrow.  One of the bearings went out, meaning the disks stopped turning and the harrow stopped working.  Luckily Randy had done enough disking to get by.  But we need to replace the bearing before we do any more.  For example, to turn in summer crops and weeds that are now standing in the field, providing habitat for overwintering pests.

Some farmers rototill their soil prior to shaping beds.   I think most of you are familiar with a rototiller, but in case you aren’t – take the blades in a blender, turn them 90 degrees, and line up a bunch in a row.  That churns through the soil, mixing it up and creating a fine, smooth and fluffy soil.  Or smoothie, in the case of a blender.  If a rototiller is a blender, a disk harrow is more like a pastry cutter.  I know I just said it was a pizza cutter but just go with me.  We don’t use a rototiller because our soil is too fragile.  While a rototiller may make the soil all soft and fluffy right after tilling, the damage to the soil structure actually makes the soil harder and more compacted in the long run.  It takes more passes with the disk harrow to loosen the soil enough to shape smooth beds that aren’t filled with hard dirt clods.

Cool Nights and Fall Vegetables

More fall vegetables are coming in.  We harvested the first of the cabbage and the so called “winter” radishes.  Broccoli is almost ready, too!  Napa cabbage and daikon will likely be in the shares next week.  We filled the last empty fall bed with lettuce transplants yesterday, so I guess that means we are done with fall planting.  Everyone’s favorite – fall carrots – are on the way, but wont be ready until the end of the month.  As long as we don’t have any catastrophes, I plan on really loading our CSA members up on carrots in November since the crop will be coming in a little later this year.

Friday night will likely bring a frost, so we are harvesting the last of the peppers, and probably the last of the eggplant, too.  While we still have okra in the field, it slowed to a standstill once the cooler whether began.  Tomatoes are long gone.  We are usually still harvesting tomatoes in October, giving up many green tomatoes to ripen into early winter.  We’ve even had tomatoes ripening in storage at Christmas before!  This year the heavy rains of hurricane Laura at the end of August laid waste to our late tomato crop.  It feels good to get the summer garden cleared out so we can really focus on cool weather crops.