CSA WEEK 23

This Week’s Harvest

  • Beets with tops
  • Carrots
  • Rutabaga
  • Bok Choi
  • Dill
  • Potatoes
  • Japanese Sweet Potatoes
  • Head Lettuce
  • Spinach
  • Broccoli
  • Red Onions

Farm News

We made it through the wet week and another cold night last night and are looking forward to an unseasonably warm and sunny week! Perfect for continuing our bulk harvests of fall crops and finishing up the garlic planting!

Yesterday we prepped for the cold. Since the forecast was calling for winds of 20 mph all night long we couldn’t easily cover crops with remay so we harvested the most tender crops. We picked all the broccoli we needed for the week and then battled the wind and dropping temperatures to pick the storage cabbage. It even snowed at one point.

Picking cabbage in the cold
Evan missed football to help us gather the cabbage

We have a large piece of row cover that covers 7 beds that we were able to use and cover cilantro, salad mix, spinach, and head lettuce. We tacked down the west side and just lifted the remay and the wind completely unfurled the giant cover over all the beds.

Getting ready to cover tender crops for the night
Tucked in for the night

We were glad for the wind as it really helps dry out the fields. In addition to needing to finish the garlic planting, we are concerned for the crops that have been sitting in water for several days. Carrots are especially susceptible to rot. In hind sight now that we see what the garlic beds currently look like (dry easy to get into) and what the carrot beds look like (still very wet), we wish we had tabled the garlic and just harvested carrots last week. We struggled to get the garlic in and force planted when we really shouldn’t have. At the time the garlic planting had a “now or never” feel to it. We both agree it would have been time better spent harvesting our beautiful carrot crop. Now we are rescuing carrots from the muck and cleaning them will take 3 times as long as they are covered in mud. Ah well, 13 years in and we are still constantly learning! Knowing that we can improve- and how we can improve- certainly encourages and motivates us to keep us going!

Garlic beds drying up nicely. The 2 to the right have been planted- 4 more beds to go!
Starting in on the carrots. Pulling the crop out of the low lying wet section first.

Recipes

Coming Up Next Week (our best guess….) Napa cabbage, cilantro, Japanese sweet potatoes, carrots, purple potatoes, brussels sprouts, head lettuce, daikon radish