This Week’s Weather Report

Lots of announcements this week. We might run out of ink before we get to write the rest of the newsletter.

Garlic planting is on for Saturday, October 5th from 1:00 until done! We could use all the help we can get. Some of our regular volunteers are unavailable that day but with the forecast of beautiful fall weather we can’t risk delaying the planting. So please let me know if you can make it. If we don’t get a good response we can move some of the work to Friday (anyone want to help that day? Seriously.) The more the merrier!

We are taking orders for 2025. You can order through our online store or for returning customers just send in a deposit of $100 by check, Zelle or PayPal to reserve your spot. (For Zelle and PayPal you can use my phone number or email address). You can also pay the full amount if you prefer. We hope to see you all back for 2025 — our 23rd season!

We are looking for a new Shoreview pick-up location and delivery person for 2025. It is an easy gig and we compensate the person making the deliveries. Please let us know if you would like to help out and I can fill you in on the details.

We have garlic for sale. $20/lb. You’ll still get garlic in the remaining weeks of the season but if you’d like to stock up for the winter this is your opportunity! It can be picked up at the farm or delivered with your CSA share. You can order it here or pay when you pick up your shares on the farm.

We have a LOT of hot peppers. I guess deer don’t like them so their loss is your gain. For on farm folks please take as many as you’d like. If you get a delivery box, let me know the quantity and heat level. No guarantee you’ll get the heat level you request — there is a limited number of the really, really hot ones — but we can try to accommodate the best we can.

What will we have this week?

A bit too early to tell (usually by Friday I have a much better idea) but I am guessing we’ll have garlic, a few leeks, winter squash, maybe potatoes, a few eggplants, some beans, some onions, a few bok choy, arugula, some cabbage, some radishes, some beets, and maybe some other things.

It is a FruitShare, EggShare and FlowerShare week. Fruit this week is local apples — a lot of local apples. I hope you like local apples! They are SweeTango apples by the way — quite delicious and good for baking! Eggs are still chicken and flowers this week will be pumpkins and maybe gourds if we get time to wash them. We might have a few flower bouquets as well, though they will be mostly zinnias and gomphrenas.

Farm News

Someone in the tent last week asked if this warm, dry weather is good for the farm. These types of questions are always good, most especially because it gives me something to write about. Since I’ve been writing a newsletter for more than 20 years I’m starting to run out of ideas. So when I say at the end of my newsletter to “send in questions, comments, …” I really do mean it. Otherwise all I will ever talk about is the weather.

Oh right. The weather. Almost forgot about the question. Does this warm, dry weather help the farm? Let me put it this way, it helps the farmers and the workers. We love working in this type of weather. Not too hot. Not too cold. And we don’t have to wear rain suits! These days are “get to work outside” days instead of “have to work outside” days. For those reasons alone this weather is great! Now if we can only get three more months like September and we’d be all set for next season.

But what about the crops? That is a good question. Typically when asked if some given weather helps or hurts crops the usual answer is “It depends on the crop.” But in this case it mostly doesn’t. If the weather gets too hot it can hurt the cool season crops like broccoli or cauliflower. If it gets too cold, say with a frost, it can kill the warm season crops like tomatoes and peppers. But with temps in the mid 80s for highs it seems to me to be pleasant for all crops. Everyone’s a winner!

And this lack of rain is typical these last many years. Since we can irrigate the crops we actually prefer too little rain than too much rain — something we had way too much of in the spring. So warm, dry weather is perfect in so many ways.

But, and there is always a but, despite the nice weather there is one factor working against us — the dwindling daylight. With less and less sun the plants photosynthesize less and less and grow slower and slower. This is one reason why I never understand how anyone in Minnesota would attempt to grow plants in a greenhouse in the winter. Even if you can keep the plants warm enough — and do it economically — the plants just don’t have enough sunlight to grow. Sure you can keep them alive but if you are trying to sell something that grows you may be out of luck.

Another aspect of the dwindling sunlight that may not be obvious is that some plants — much like us humans — change their behavior when the days grow shorter (odd expression I must say. How does one “grow” yet become “shorter”?) The prime example of course are deciduous trees which lose their leaves. Another is marijuana. I’ve learned that marijuana is photoperiodic. Marijuana flowers based on changes in sunlight. I’m sure many of you already knew this. Photoperiodism is why most marijuana farms are indoors — they can control the light levels and therefore control when the plant flowers. I suppose the other reason to grow marijuana indoors is to protect it from predators if you know what I mean.

Anyway, where was I? Oh, yes. Do these warm, dry days help or hurt the farm? If I recall I said earlier that it helps and then I put a “but” after it. Well here is another but: some plants taste better when expose to cold weather. The prime example is Brussels sprouts. We like to leave the sprouts on the plant until we have a couple of good frosts. In all past seasons Minnesota weather has cooperated and given us a few (or usually many) frosts by the end of October. I suspect this year will be no different but September was surprisingly warm so who knows. If we don’t get cold weather before we harvest the sprouts you can blame your usual dislike of BS on the weather this year. Blaming the weather is so Minnesotan! Oh, and being an election year, there is a LOT of BS this year.

Finally, it would have been a lot more helpful if we were told in March that we were going to have this warm, dry weather in September. We need plenty of notice in farming to take advantage of these type of things.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this long winded, overwrought answer as much as I did writing it.

tl:dr Mostly helps, except for BS (Why do they always put the tl:dr at the end of the article? Seem like it would be better at the beginning).

Recipe of the Week

This first recipe is my favorite way to eat green beans. I should have sent it out last week but too late. Anyway, give it a try!

I think I’ve included this recipe in the recent past but since we have a lot of local apples in FruitShare I figured this would be a good way to use one of them. And if you make the same salad with arugula instead of kale you can use another of your apples!

Brain Teaser of the Week

If it took six kids six hours to eat all the apples in the apple orchard, how many hours would it take three kids?

None, because the first six kids already ate them all.

Feel free to send in comments, questions, jokes, new orders for stuff, fake brain teasers, and anything else you think would be interesting for me to read.