Mid-October Garden Report

The mid-October garden report finds the farm in pretty good shape. We survived festival season and got a lot of much needed clean up done. Tomatoes and peppers are dwindling, but the fall beans are banging. Besides six rows of blue lake, we have many rows of October beans whose time has come.

These were sown in the old potato field in late July, along with long gone cucumbers and yellow squash. Above them we have rows of arugula, mizuna, ale and turnips. A field of purple tops and mustard are growing at the very top.

A half acre of greens followed a summer garden, planted in early August. Bok choys and chinese cabbage were started here and then transplanted out to other fields. Next to several rows of our own flat leaf kale we have a big collard patch and one row each of Red Russian, Siberian, and Dwarf Scotch curled kale. A young spinach patch is starting to poke up.

The squash field is in assorted greens daikons, awaiting Sandor Katz’s Nov. 5 workshop and inspiration to make kimchi. A taste and sharing of muscadines was heavenly. The last pears were the very best.

In the store house we are busy sorting sweets and butts, our affectionate name for sweet potatoes and butternuts. They look (and taste) good. We still have irish potatoes to look through, too.

The barn loft has plenty of onions and garlic left. We have the new garlic beds planted and about half mulched. I’d like to get some ground composted and plowed for an early onion crop next spring.

It’s beed a good growing year, with plenty of rain most of the time. We thank the gardens with cover crops of buckwheat, crimson clover, wheat, rye and peas And we thank all of our customers, from far and near, who support local organic farming.