Seventy Degrees in Three Weeks

This fall has presented challenges. We had some unseasonably warm weather – 73 degrees in October.  This meant it was tough to keep the root cellar cool enough for the roots.  Too warm and vegetables will either rot or start growing.  Neither helps flavor of nutrition! Once it cooled off, temperatures plummeted.  this made harvest tough.  The weather needs to be cool but above freezing or the vegetables thaw and turn to mush. This week …

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Harvest Newsletter

Greetings from the Garden! This week’s CSA box has salad mix, braising mix, stuffing tomatoes, peppers, carrots, beets, winter squash, salad turnips, onions, garlic, and herbs       Field Notes.  The “Big Dig” as I call it is well upon us.  Spring and fall are the busiest times for a farm.  In spring it is planting and in fall it is harvest.  This year we have some help.  Last Tuesday it was beets, carrots, …

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Extending the Season – Hoopettes

Each fall there is a period of frost, but days with enough heat  so plants can survive and remain alive.  Ken erects what he calls hoopettes over crops that will take some cold weather.  The season can continue for quite some time.  It all depends on the weather!     If the snow falls and covers the soil like a blanket, and the frost does not creep in and freeze the soil in the hoopettes, …

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Winter Came on a Friday This Year

After a beautiful unseasonably warm autumn, cold weather and icy precipitation arrived Friday.          Ken had been watching the weather and we went to the garden and covered some plants with fiber.         Ken set up a long hoopette over the fall carrot and beet crops.         Then as it neared dusk we changed hats and gloves and went to the mobile high tunnel.  We covered …

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