This Week’s Harvest
Sweet potatoes
Spinach
Sweet onions
Carrots
Cabbage
Beauty heart (watermelon) radishes
Farm News
This week we moved on from harvesting sweet potatoes and started in our fall carrots. These crunchy treats keep all winter long and even go into the first CSA boxes the following season. Carrots are very sensitive to water-logged soil so we need to monitor the soil conditions and make sure it doesn’t get too wet. Our heavy soil has a lot of clay and we’ve experienced rot before (this year even with one of our summer carrot beds) so we are super mindful of the forecast this time of year (well always, but for different reasons from season to season!) Ideally we’d get a frost or two before we harvest carrots because this tends to sweeten them up even more.
But with rain predicted for Sunday more coming later in the week, we decided to get as many carrots as possible out starting Thursday. On Thursday and Friday we just had a few hours to tackle a couple beds each day. We also had current employees, a former employee, and our kids help harvest all day on Saturday. I am happy to report that we got through 9 of 12 beds and have a total of 7 macro bins filled to the brim and tucked into the cooler. I am also pleased to report that despite not getting the cold weather, they are terrifically sweet and delicious! We will bunch carrots with tops this week and next off of the remaining 3 beds. So far we haven’t had to sort any out for rot, but I can report that we are happy with our decision. We did end up getting a good amount of rain between Sunday and Monday and during today’s harvest, the carrots pulled right out of the completely saturated soils. It really is a matter of time before they start melting down, and if we lose a bed or 2 that is nothing compared to all 12!
On Saturday after picking carrots from 8 to 5, Ben used the remaining daylight to prep our garlic beds. We didn’t have time to plant before this round of rain, but now the beds are ready to go and as soon as it drys out enough, planting garlic will move to the top of the list.
Recipes
Roasted Beets and Butternut Squash Salad with Arugula
Slow cooker Chipotle Beef Tacos with cabbage and radish slaw
Indonesian Sweet Potato and Cabbage Soup (I’ve posted this one before. It’s a family favorite!)
Coming Up Next Week (our best guess…..) Spinach, Beauty Heart Radishes, Japanese Sweet Potatoes, Red Potatoes, Garlic, Salad Mix, Beets, Carrots, Kale, Tomatoes