October 7, 2024
Fall Colors
by Farmer Derek

The biggest piece of news from last week at the farm was the successful completion of the sweet potato harvest, amazingly completed in one work day with staff and CSA members. I'm not sure what's more remarkable, the quality or the quantity of the tubers. Even during our driest of growing seasons, the unirrigated sweet potatoes still managed to bulk up and achieve that quintessential sweet potato size and shape. Besides the occasional mammal-munched root, they're healthy and blemish-free. Now, the 8,000lbs or so of sweets will 'cure' in a warm humid room where they'll heal and convert starch to sugar. We'll test them in a couple of weeks to see if they're sweet enough to eat and will plan to distribute them during the final four weeks of the season.

It's also time to thank your luck stars, give in to the vagaries of farming and the ebb and flow of moisture. Behold, broccoli and cauliflower appear to have made a triumphant return to shares. Perhaps just an average amount will be available; we won't know for sure until we begin harvesting them this week. But during a cursory walk-through the patch yesterday, elevated florets were abundant on the broccoli and emerging white corals were numerous in the cauliflower. Dry and cool weather, consistent irrigation, and good fertility have enabled the patch to remain mostly pest and disease free and now hopefully productive. These are fickle crops for us that we can't rely on every single year the way we can others. Thus, rejoice!