A time for clearing and cover cropping
With our growing zone’s average frost date fast approaching next week, we’re preparing to officially put our summer garden to bed. We’re pulling pepper, tomato, and squash plants. We’re clearing the beds and replacing them with cover crops of wheat and rye.
We’re inching our mobile chicken coops slowly closer to littered beds. They’ll scratch and dig up these unkempt and overgrown crop remnants, leaving behind chopped mulch and organic nutrients. The more effort that we put toward appropriately concluding this growing season, the less effort we will need to put toward effectively implementing next year’s growing season.
The production of nutritious organic produce has been narrowed down to ten 50-foot rows in our fall garden and a half-cultivated 40-foot hoop house.
From these gardens, we plan to provide the following foods this week:
Edible and/or Ornamental Winter Squash (Butternut, Spaghetti, Pumpkin), Bell & Carmen Peppers, Anaheim Peppers, Red Okra (as available), Swiss Chard, Kale mix, Lettuce Mix, Spinach, Bok Choy, Beets, Eggs, and Flowers.
Our winter squashes have officially been cleared from the field. We have Butternut, Spaghetti, and Pumpkin squashes varied in size, maturity, and preservation. This week, our plan is to distribute our first pumpkins, for culinary or ornamental purposes, to our home delivery customers.
Our farm pick up and city pick up shareholders will have a pile of various squashes from which to choose for themselves. If folks have any specific requests ahead of time, please let us know in response to our weekly email and we will do our best to provide the gourds you’ve asked for.
We have some nice looking beets to pass out this week- traditional, candy-cane, and golden varieties.
We’re taking a break from our abundant radish and turnip crop and next week we ought to have carrot bunches available. Rutabagas, Kohlrabi, and Broccoli are maturing and will hopefully be included when appropriate in these final few weeks.
Bok Choy heads will be distributed this week. Some have had an easier time with the pests than others and we will be sure to pick our best, most uniform and intact heads this week for our shareholders. Be sure to wash your veggies and try not to be alarmed by the nibbles present. We think it is better to have visible signs of natural biology and wildlife than invisible synthetic or broadly destructive chemical residue.
Our egg production continues to slow as the sun sets earlier each night. We’ve learned a lot this summer about the balance between providing a free, natural existence for our birds while maintaining a consistent commercial approach to maximizing production. We will do our very best to distribute as much pasture raised protein as possible.
Last week, we foraged by the creek and were surprised to find a productive patch of “chicken of the woods” wild edible mushrooms. We couldn’t eat it all ourselves, so we offered a surplus to our Wednesday city pick up and farm pick up folks. We will continue checking on this flush and offer up whatever we can forage for those interested.
Have a great week, friends. Thank you again.
Erin & David Morckel