Two Feet in the Dirt

This is transition time on the farm, with huge amounts of planting for the fall happening each week. The fall cabbage, kale, chard, and collard greens are growing away, along with the first of the fall head lettuce. This week, we put in the first of the fall radishes, baby kale, and turnips and plantings of these will continue in the coming weeks. Meanwhile, many of the summer veggies are at their peak of production and, with this in mind, I wanted to share some of our favorite recipes that make use of these summer favorites and some of our other available crops. Check out the recipes and our full...

While we do a fair amount of work on our own to control insect pests on the farm, we actually get a lot of help from other insects. Most people know about the benefits of ladybugs, which eat aphids, a common pest in both vegetable and ornamental gardens. Our new favorite predatory insect is fittingly called the assassin bug. These guys can get quite big and go after many different crop pests that we struggle with on our farm. We became big fans of the assassin bug earlier this summer when the zinnias were starting to bloom and were being overwhelmed by the first influx of Japanese beetles. We were...

Even as the tomatoes are hitting their peak and the peppers are turning from green to red, fall is already on our minds. This week was a big one for fall planting, with lots of kale, chard, collards, scallions, and the first of the fall lettuce all going into the ground. In the next few weeks, we’ll continue to plant weekly rounds of head lettuce along with more scallions, escarole, and the fall kohlrabi! Fall is my favorite time on the farm as we move into cooler weather and the focus turns back to the greens and root crops that are my favorites to grow, so it’s something nice to...