Two Feet in the Dirt

Fall planting is always the most challenging to plan as you never know how the weather will play out. If it’s a cold fall, it is possible to end up with a harvesting gap as growth slows. In contrast, with a warm fall like we’re having this year, it’s easy to end up with multiple plantings of the same crop becoming harvestable at the same time! This week, that is the case for lettuce and, as a result, we will have a wide selection of different lettuce varieties available. We will be harvesting red and green butter heads, red romaine, red and green leaf lettuce, and romaine hearts, making it a...

It has been a very warm autumn so far. Despite some unusually early light frosts and some more over this last weekend, we have yet to have any heavy frosts or freezes that would put an end to the season for summer crops. While we’ve passed the first harvest wave for our tomatoes, the plants have actually put on a huge amount of beautiful new green growth in the last few weeks and some of the cherry tomato plants are even flowering again! After a weekend with lows of in the thirties, we’re looking at a week with highs into the low 80s several times, a definite oddity for late...

This year has really been feast-or-famine when it comes to rain and this isn’t the first time that we’ve gone a couple of weeks with no rain followed by nearly two inches overnight. The biggest challenge with inconsistent rain is germinating our direct-seeded crops. We plant in three different ways. Some things are planted via transplant. These seeds are started inside in trays until they are between 4 and 8 weeks old and then are planted out into the field. Transplanted crops range from lettuce heads and kale to tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant. A very small number of crops (potatoes and garlic) are planted from live plant matter. Garlic is...