I heard the F-word last night. I read it in the paper the other day as well. Seems like a lot of people are using the F-word these days. I don’t know about you but I find it pretty offensive – especially this time of year. I guess I just have to get used to it. It has permeated society.
The F-word I’m talking about is Frost. The weather reports indicate a chance of frost this Wednesday night, especially in the northern suburbs. We aren’t in the northern suburbs but we are in the area they call “patchy” as in “there will be patchy frost in the metro this evening”. Patchy frost is only patchy if you aren’t in the patch, otherwise it is just frost. So we are planning for frost this Wednesday. If it happens, we will be prepared. If it doesn’t, we just harvested a bunch of stuff earlier than we would have – but that only makes future harvests less time-consuming.
So what do we do to prepare for the frost? The first thing is to harvest anything that is frost sensitive and big enough to harvest. That includes tomatoes, peppers, hot peppers, cucumbers, beans, watermelons (though there aren’t many of these), eggplants and tomatillos. The second thing we do is setup the sprinklers on the peppers. We have found that running the sprinklers overnight protects the peppers from being killed. We do this on the peppers because they seem to be in the best shape this time of year and if we get a few more weeks of nice weather we could have a few more weeks of peppers. By now our tomatoes are looking ragged from disease and it doesn’t pay to try to keep these going. We put row covers over the beans if they look like they can keep producing for a few more weeks. The row covers are lightweight really long blankets. The difficult thing with row covers is that they blow off easily. So if there is a breeze we have to figure out a way to keep them down – not trivial when you have 600 feet of beans.
The rest of the frost sensitive plants we leave to the whims of nature. If they survive we continue to take care of them. If they perish we look forward to the fall crops. What fall crops might we look forward to in upcoming weeks? Besides the ones mentioned below in the “new this week” section we will have Brussels sprouts, leeks, Napa cabbage, broccoli, kohlrabi, beets, and bok choi.
So today and tomorrow we will be madly harvesting. Hopefully we have enough room in our cooler to keep all the produce we harvest today.
Speaking of harvest, what is on this week’s menu? First let’s look at what will most likely be ending this week: tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, tomatillos, cucumbers, and eggplants (a few). Next we have things we hope we can save and continue next week: peppers and beans. Then here are things new this week: winter squash, pie pumpkins, radishes, salad mix, and shallots. And finally things we’ve had before and will continue to have for a while: onions, garlic (this week we will distribute chesnok red), potatoes, and cabbage (though the variety will change).
FlowerShare
With the pending frost FlowerShare may end suddenly. We will have to wait to see what survives. Later this fall we will have fall decorations for FlowerShare. These include pumpkins, gourds and ornamental corn. We have to wait until these mature before we can harvest and distribute them.
Garlic Planting
Just another reminder to mark your calendar for our garlic planting party. It will take place on Saturday, October 15th from 10:00 am to whenever we are done (weather permitting). Lunch will be provided. There are tasks that require bending and tasks that don’t. There is plenty to do and the more hands the faster we can get to lunch. Please let me know if you plan to help out. Free garlic for all that help!
FruitShare
This week we have a mixed box of Colorado peaches, figs and grapes! Seems like an interesting mix!
CheeseShare
This week we have churned cream, cheese curds and sharp cheddar.
MeatShare
No MeatShare this week.