Fall is Trickier than Spring
We’ve explained before that we expanded from one to three garden blocks this year- our original spring garden block, and two summer garden blocks. This time of year, we are harvesting, clearing, and cover-cropping our summer garden blocks and returning to our spring garden block for fall vegetables.
While managing all three blocks is stretching and time consuming, it’s a relief to be returning to the garden where it all started. The sense that we’re nearing the finish line for this growing season is both comforting and motivating.
As we return to that first garden, we revisit many of the cool season crops we provided during the spring. While they’re technically both suited for these cool season vegetables, fall is trickier than spring. In early spring, you’re raising seedlings in cooler conditions that they like, while pest pressure is still dormant, giving those young plants a safe and comfortable environment to get off to a great start.
As temperatures warm, the plants mature and the conditions are about as ideal as they can be. The pests wake up with the warm temperatures, but you’ve at least been able to avoid many of them early in the plant’s upbringing. You’re able to get a head start.
Now we must raise those same crops with the conditions being reversed. The seedlings are getting their start in hot late summer, they’re thirstier and dry out quickly. The pests are already there waiting. These crops require more care and attention. In the spring, as the garden wakes up slowly, there is more bandwidth to provide this attention while in the late summer/fall, as we mentioned before, we’re stretched out across multiple gardens and the attention can be more difficult to evenly distribute.
As has not been uncommon this season, we’re faced with prioritization and compromise that, while necessary, sometimes feels uncomfortable. Nevertheless, we are still producing food though our harvests feel more like a forage amongst the tall weeds.
We’re finally reincorporating salad greens in the roster. This week, we will have Arugula, but you can soon expect harvests of Kale, Spinach, Swiss Chard, Lettuces, and micros. We haven’t been able to keep the pests away so while the Arugula will be well-washed and sorted-through, expect some bug bites and try not to be alarmed. They’re still as nutty, nutritious, and refreshing as we should expect, with some faulty aesthetics.
This week, we plan to include the following produce:
Tomatoes (Cherry or Heirloom as available), Zephyr bicolor summer squash, Mild Peppers (Bells, Carmens, and/or Shishitos), Hot Peppers (Jalapeno, Anaheim, Hungarian Hot Wax), multicolor Radish, Arugula, Red Okra, fresh Butternut squash, Sage, Eggs, and Flowers.
We’ll be sharing some big ol’ butternuts this week. They haven’t been formally cured for long term storage, so they’re considered fresh winter squash. But, they’ve spent a good while ripe on the vine and you should expect them to last- months if not through the whole winter.
There are so many creative ways to prepare these vegetables and we’d love to hear about how you’re enjoying them. We’ll include Sage this week as a complementary herb. It’s a common companion in butternut recipes. We’ll likely have more to share in the coming weeks as well as spaghetti squash and pumpkins as they ripen.
We’re looking forward to seeing our friends today. Have a great week!
Erin & David