September 17, 2023
Almost Fall for Real
by Farmer Derek

Last weekend we received about four inches of rain, more than all of August. Because the ground was severely moisture deficient following the hot and dry spell, that amount of rain was fairly well received and most fields soaked it up relatively quickly. The additional rain on Tuesday prevented us from transplanting outdoors all week, but we had almost ten thousand spinach and lettuce plants to transplant in the tunnels which was doable because the roof keeps the water out and we have almost complete control over the soil in there. As long as it doesn't rain too much tonight we'll get the penultimate round of outdoor crops in the ground this coming week, including kale, arugula, mustard, choy, and radishes. The final round of indoor and outdoor crops will go in the following week and then it'll strictly be maintenance mode.

Regarding the tunnels, we're incrementally emptying them of the summer tomato crops. As of today, two of three tunnels have been cleaned out. Because the second round of tomatoes is in the moveable high tunnel and we can prepare and plant crops for its subsequent move, it's possible to leave the tomatoes to their thing for a bit longer. There is some risk in this, however, because spinach, planted in the adjacent plot, doesn't tolerate excessive rainfall too well, at least in our soils. It does exceptionally well in cool and cold weather, however.

I'm assuming the heat wave two weeks ago invigorated the summer crops for a strong final push before they really taper off. We'll continue to see bountiful tomatoes, peppers, basil, and eggplant for at least another week before they slow down following next weekend's Autumnal Equinox.

This coming week we're hoping to harvest the last of the potatoes and winter squash. Very soon we'll embark on the sweet potato harvest, but due to storage constraints, we need to have all of the winter squash distributed first. As summer crops wane, upcoming harvests should begin to include other traditional cool weather crops like turnips, radishes, beets, romaine, radicchio, fennel, broccoli, cauliflower, celery, kohlrabi, bok choy, and napa/chinese cabbage.