2023 Garlic is In!

Farmer Dana, normally behind the camera, is still smiling after spreading straw mulch on 16,500 square feet of 2023 garlic. Photo courtesy of Farmer Sarah.

We're enjoying some seriously warm and strange early November days. It makes for a great time to work and play outside. With the forecast looking so good from the perspective of last weekend, we made a push to plant and mulch the 2023 garlic. Soil was just barely workable last Monday before that small rain event and we began planting the next day. Besides harvesting for CSA pick up, about all we accomplished last week was preparing beds for and planting and mulching the garlic, in addition to continued hoop tunnel endwall modification. In total we planted around 300 pounds of garlic cloves at 6 inch spacing in 3 rows on 11 250-foot beds then used 14 large round straw bales to cover those beds. The straw will smother weeds, provide moisture retention, and insulate the soil over the winter so the garlic doesn't frost-heave out of the ground.

We're into in the final two weeks of Main Season. With the five additional Late Fall weeks following that, the finish line is in sight and we're now in try-to-distribute-all-farm-produce mode. That means identifying and calculating exactly how much food is still in field, what the yields from the tunnels might be, and the amount of crops in storage. Late Fall membership is approximately 35% of Main Season so we have these next two weeks to really pare down supplies. Our goal is to try to unload as much as we can without overwhelming you while providing a nice balance of goods. We could send you home with 10 pounds of radishes at one pick up, but instead will spread those 10 pounds out over 7 pick ups.

This will be the final week of pick up for some Half Share A members. Thank you for joining us and the farm on this journey, thank you for your patronage, thank you for your support. We hope you have a nice restful winter and plan to return to the farm in the spring.