Two Feet in the Dirt

In less than a week, it seems we’ve transitioned from high summer right into autumn. Temperatures over the weekend didn’t climb out of the 60s, a nearly thirty degree difference from last week’s heat. All in all, we’re starting to get that end-of-season feeling on the farm, even though we still have several months of market to go. With cooler weather and no sun in the forecast for at least the next week, we finally removed the shade cloth that helped to keep our hoop house cool over the summer. This was just in time, as the first fall crops started going into the hoop house last week as we gradually make the shift from planting primarily outside to planting inside the high tunnel. We also dug up almost all of the remaining potatoes from the field, meaning that as soon as the beds dry out enough, we can till and mulch those beds in preparation for winter and next season.

And more and more fall crops are getting close to harvestable size. This week, we’ll have the first escarole of the season, one of my absolute favorite crops to grow and eat. I love to simply sautee it in olive oil and garlic with a little bit of veggie broth for a tasty, autumnal side dish and you can also throw in some white beans to beef it up a little. Both cabbage and salad turnips (like the white ones we had in the spring) should be ready for harvest in the next week or so as well! It will be a toss-up as to whether we’ll have tomatoes this week. It all depends on whether it dries out enough for us to harvest them before they’ve split from all this rain.

Check out below for our full harvest list and we’ll keep our fingers crossed for hurricane-free markets this weekend. See you there!

Farmers Katie & Mike

This week at the market:

• Salad mix
• Baby kale
• Arugula
• Lettuce heads
• Escarole
• Scallions
• Radishes
• Rainbow chard
• Kale
• Collard greens
• Winter squash
• Eggplant
• Sweet peppers
• Garlic
• Onions
• Potatoes
• Carrots
• Beets