Get ready for the fall social event of the fall — garlic planting! This year’s gala is scheduled for Saturday October 7th from 1:00 until done. It is a shine only event and will be rescheduled if it rains. There is plenty to do for people with varying capabilities. Like to stand around and talk? We have a task for you! Like to ride on the back of a tractor? We have a task for you! Like to drive a tractor? Sorry, only I get to drive the tractor. Anyway, we’d love to see everyone here. Many hands make light work and good conversation!
We are giving out popcorn this week. It may not be ready to pop yet so let it dry for another few weeks or months. You can try popping a few of the kernels to see if it is dry enough before using the whole cob.
We are still taking back pint size cherry tomato containers. We’ll use them next season.
We’ll start taking orders for next season as soon as I have time to update our online store.
We’re still working on getting all the winter squash and pie pumpkins harvested. If you have a few extra hours lying around don’t hesitate to lend a hand! It is pretty easy work if your favorite yoga pose is downward dog. Great for stretching the glutes!
We’ve given up looking for help this season. We’ll try again next season.
Farm News
It is that time of year again — complaining about growing winter squash season.
I was going to write about how I find winter squash one of the hardest crops to grow but then while searching the past newsletters for Geotrichum Candidum — one of the problems we’ve encountered in growing squash — I came across last year’s newsletter complaining about how I find winter squash one of the hardest crops to grow. Great minds think alike they say! Anyway, I guess I will just point you to that newsletter to understand my frustrations this time of year. But like everything else in farming, this year we have a new malady — or at least a far more prevalent winter squash malady — sun scald.
Winter squash and pumpkins can get sun scald when their fruits are exposed to the sun. It doesn’t seem to happen to every fruit exposed. And it certainly doesn’t always happen to the extent it did this year. I feel like our squash plants were not any less leafy this season than they’ve been in past seasons so what changed? Why do we see more this year than past years? And perhaps it isn’t sun scald, but if not, what is it?
My current hypothesis is the hot temps we had in September occurred at the worst time. The leaves of the squash plants were in decline due to disease or old age so the fruits were exposed to the direct sun for the first time. It seemed to me that the plants were especially leafy this year so the fruits grew with a great leaf canopy cover. As they started to be exposed to the sun they experienced the hot temps so it was inevitable that many of them would succumb to sun scald. It’s like sitting inside during a Minnesota winter then going outside all day in the spring without any sunscreen on. Instant sunburn!
Another theory is that we have less black rot this year so either something else has to bedevil us or without the black rot causing us grief we had the opportunity to find another problem to cause us grief.
Since this is a fairly new issue for us — at least to the extent we see it this year — we are learning along with you as to what level of sun scald is destructive and at what level will the fruit be fine, just a different color. I suspect that many squash will survive just fine with a bit of sun scald. If the scald doesn’t go too deeply into the fruit it is probably just cosmetic. Though I suppose with a weakened rind it might be more susceptible to a secondary infection. If you do get a squash where the skin is white keep an eye on it and let us know if it keeps or rots. Before and after pictures are always helpful so feel free to send them my way! We’ll get through this together and live to eat squash another day!
What will we have this week?
Winter squash! We’ll be giving out spaghetti and carnival squash this week. We’ll also have popcorn! Let it dry for a few months prior to trying to pop it. We’ll also have onions, garlic, mesclun salad mix (spicier than your typical lettuce blend), arugula, peppers — lots of peppers, hot peppers, a few tomatoes, a few cherry tomatoes, some potatoes, some cabbages, a few eggplants, a few tomatillos, a few daikon radishes, some broccoli, and of course those other items I forget.
It is also an EggShare and FlowerShare week! The flowers will be mostly zinnias but who doesn’t like zinnias? They also will be smaller than in the past but that is to be expected this time of year.
Joke of the Week
What kind of vegetable do you get when an elephant walks through your garden?
Answer: Squash
As always, send in your questions, comments, jokes, puzzlers and anything else you think would be interesting for a farmer to receive!