Two Feet in the Dirt

This has been a strange and challenging year for all of us in so many ways and the weather has certainly been one of them. At this time last year, we were in a drought, followed by an excessively cold November, a very warm and dry winter, and then a late cold snap in the spring. Summer was persistently hot and continued fairly dry and now we are getting near-freezing temperatures a month before usual! Our first frost date has typically fallen right around mid-October and last year we had our first frost on the morning of October 19. This year, we had a light frost on the morning of September 20, nearly a month before usual!

As I write this on Monday morning, we have only had very very light frost levels both Sunday and Monday morning, with just a few patches of frosty grass. At this time of year, the farm is certainly dominated by crops that are frost-hardy, but in September and early October we are usually also getting the final harvests off of all of our summer crops like tomatoes, okra, peppers, eggplant, and zucchini. So far, the frost has stayed at ground level and has not seemed to cause much damage to these taller plants. However, we still have one more cold night in store tonight, so I am listing these summer items below under a separate “possible harvest” section as we wait to see how they fare through this cold snap. We’re keeping our fingers crossed that most of these heat-loving plants make it, as the weather is supposed to bounce back up to normal, warmer temperatures starting on Tuesday, so hopefully we’ll get in a few more weeks of tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, etc., before the real fall freezes set in!

Happy first day of fall this week! The full harvest list is below and the online store will be open Thursday from noon until midnight. Thank you so much for your support of our farm this year. We could not have done this without each and every one of you and are truly thankful.

Farmers Katie & Mike

• Harvest List:

• Lettuce salad mix
• Arugula
• Lettuce
• Hakurei turnips
• Escarole
• Radishes
• Scallions
• Kale
• Collard greens
• Onions
• Rainbow Chard
• Carrots
• Beets
• Cabbage
• Garlic
• Potatoes
• Peppers
• (We are also hoping to get the first kohlrabi this week.)

Possible items, depending on frost:

• Zucchini/Summer squash
• Tomatoes
• Cherry tomatoes
• Eggplant
• Okra
• Basil
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