We have award winning honey for sale! Second place at the Minnesota State Fair! The honey is from a farm member who keeps bees here at the farm plus a few other places. You can buy it when you pick-up in the tent. For delivery folks you can either order it online, or email me and send the money through Zelle or Paypal. You can use my email address for either service. Price is $10 for a one pound jar.
We’ll continue to take back the pint-size clam shell containers.
Save the date! Garlic planting is scheduled for Saturday, October 3rd; starting time is 1:00 pm. This event is weather dependent so may change. Use the pencil font when adding it to your calendar.
What will we have this week?
We’re moving into the fall crops and away from the summer crops. Cukes and zukes are done for the year. Tomatoes are slowing way down. But winter squash is on its way! First up is acorn squash. We also have onions, shallots, garlic, peppers, eggplant, potatoes (Red Norlands and Kennebec), okra, some cabbage, a few Napa cabbage, lots of green beans! and the things I am forgetting.
It is a big week for add-ons. This week we have coffee, cheese, eggs, fruit, flowers, and mushrooms.
A Quick Note About the Squash
Some of the acorn squash have a light colored spot on them. This is sun scald. It is caused by the sudden exposure of the acorn fruit to the sun once the leaf canopy dies. It doesn’t cause a problem with the squash other than reducing the storage life of the squash. We tried to cull any where the spot was soft indicating the insides were failing. Hopefully we got all the squishy ones. In any case, if you get a squash with a light spot on it I would suggest using the squash soon and not count on it storing for months. Also, we have found one squash with what we are now calling “The Goop”. This is when the inside of the squash turns to a goopy mess. It is the same affliction I mentioned in the discussion about tomatoes and the watermelons. This problem isn’t always evident from the outside but we have discovered if you shake the squash as hard as you can in a quiet environment you can hear the seeds rattling around inside the fruit. No rattle indicates a good squash. Hopefully there isn’t too many rattlers. Let me know if you have any questions.
Farm News
As I was harvesting the winter squash this week I was thinking about how growing such a wide range of vegetables makes for a challenging business. In particular, when to harvest each of the crops. Since I was thinking of it, I figured maybe that would make a good newsletter. So here is a list of crops and when we harvest them.
Things we harvest daily: Zucchini, pickling cucumbers. We pick these daily since they grow so fast. If we wait an extra day they get extra big.
Things we harvest every other day: Cucumbers, okra, broccoli, cauliflower, head lettuce. These typically don’t grow as fast as the daily harvested veggies so we can pick them every other day. Some we pick before they get too big (cucumbers), other we pick before they go to seed (lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower) so we want to check them every other day.
Things we harvest as needed: green onions, scallions, kale, green garlic, cabbage, Napa cabbage. Typically these items don’t get too big quickly so we can go through the beds as we need the item. Some, like Napa cabbage, can go to seed but since we typically walk through these crops at least weekly we can scout for potential bolting.
Things we harvest weekly: tomatillos. These don’t grow fast enough to warrant harvesting them more than once per week. Plus having to feel every husk to get a sense as to how big the fruit is inside is time consuming. It works best to check each husk once per week.
Things we harvest twice per week: flowers. We harvest and make bouquets on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
Things we harvest 2-3 times per week: tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, beans, peas, beets, kohlrabi, peppers, radishes, salad mix, melons, watermelons, basil, arugula, leeks, bok choy. Some of these plants produce “ripe” vegetables randomly so we have to look them over 2-3 times per week. Tomatoes and cherry tomatoes are a prime example. Others in this group are time consuming so we never have the time to harvest them all at once. Beans and peas are good examples. We harvest as many of these as time allows (or when we make time) each week. And finally there is the type of veggie that we harvest based on demand for the next pick-up day (e.g. bok choy, arugula).
Things we harvest once per season: winter squash, pumpkins, gourds, sweet potatoes, onions, shallots, garlic, lemongrass, rosemary, popcorn, ornamental corn. These are crops that mature all at once or that keep growing until frost, then we have to harvest them all at once. These crops require a lot of storage space (well, maybe not the lemongrass and rosemary).
Things we harvest as needed but a whole week’s worth at one time then eventually harvest a bunch when we find more time: potatoes. Since potato digging is time consuming and uses a special implement on the tractor, we harvest enough potatoes to make it through one or two weeks. Typically we do this on Fridays or Mondays. Then after the plants die we’ll harvest as many as we can given the amount of time and labor we have available.
Things we harvest a whole bed at once but not very often: carrots. Carrots are also time consuming so if we are going to harvest them we might as well do the whole bed. If we don’t have time for the whole bed we can harvest a row or two as needed but I’d rather just get them all harvested at one time.
Things we harvest when we find time but aren’t a priority if we don’t get to them: herbs not listed previously, hot peppers. These crops typically don’t “mature” (herbs), or are not in high demand (hot peppers) and can last awhile in the field or fridge.
Things we harvest all in one week but not at one time: sweet corn. We try to harvest what we need for the day we are giving it out. Sometimes we have to harvest for two days but in either case we typically harvest and give out the whole corn field in one week.
I think this is all we grow but I’m sure there is something I forgot. If your favorite vegetable isn’t on the list let me know.
Recipe of the week
I should have a good acorn squash recipe but I don’t. Hopefully there is one on the internet.
Joke of the Week
What is a farmer’s favorite sport?
Squash
As always, send in your questions, comments, suggestions, ideas, jokes or any other things that come to mind.