With last night’s forecast calling for -3°C, I finally figured a little floating row cover frost protection might be a good idea. In fact, though, with the cloudy, windy, wet conditions right through to Saturday evening, a solid freeze didn’t seem all that likely. And that turned out to be the case. The min/max thermometer outside the greenhouse registered a low of -5°C, but only a few crops suffered minor damage. Even the basil, which is really tender, did well: the top layer of leaves took one for the team, but the rest were fine. Here, some sweet pepper plants sit under cover, but the forecast for the next week is…quite warm. When exactly does the season end?
Veggies
Seasonal eating
The veggie selection changes over the season, but it’s not necessarily reflected too dramatically on the stand at the farmers’ market this year. Compared to mid-August, the absence of snap beans and tomatoes is clear (with the mild weather, some vendors did have standard field tomatoes today). As for early June, well, more variety now is to be expected. Still, most of the cool-season crops for around here, like broccoli, cauliflower, and collards, also, winter squash, I have only enough of for CSA. On the stand, two types of radish (White Icicle, French Breakfast), three types of beet (Golden Detroit, Scarlet Supreme, Bull’s Blood, in smaller sizes here), two types of carrot (Nelson, Purple Haze), Red Russian kale, two types of bok choi (Mei Quing, Joi) and mesclun, plus Yukon Gold potatoes, Music garlic and Stuttgarter onions in baskets. The stand could be a lot bigger, offering more display space, and the harvest could be expanded (there are still herbs, summer squash, sweet and hot peppers, tomatillos, Brussels sprouts,…) but the marginal sales for many “secondary” veggies at this slowing down time of year don’t make it worthwhile. I’m still working on the balance between production planning, labor, harvest selection, post-harvest prep, and presentation… Sounds complicated, but it’s just…work! ;)
Big beets
Something excellent and hard to pin down happened with the last planting of beets: they became HUGE. This was the fourth planting of the season, around mid-July (see them on the left), and the seedlings got caught in the near drought, although they were around the top of the irrigation list and got a decent share of water. In mid-September, the steady, plentiful rains started, along with continuing warm weather, but that was well into their growth (they’re all 50-60 day varieties). And thinning was good, though just the usual. Whatever the cause, all of them—Scarlet Supreme, Golden Detroit, Bull’s Blood, Chioggia—blew up, most weighing in at 1.5-2.5 lbs (700-1100 gms). Maybe I don’t get out enough (to check out other people’s produce around the country and the world :), or maybe more irrigation would do the trick, but to me it’s somewhat of a mystery how these got to double and triple size. I’ve tasted them all, raw and cooked: they’re firm, tender, with great color and flavor. Smaller beets are more convenient for some purposes, but these big guys are versatile and…easy to harvest and pack… Two to a beet!
After the harvest
Finally, today, no more potatoes in the ground! After a near-pristine potato patch for much of the season, field priorities got switched around and pigweed had its turn with the taters. Eradicating the weeds before digging up the last 50’x50′ section seemed to take forever (but was actually a few hours spread over the last couple of weeks). Anyhow, this last haul is about 200 lbs (91 kg). It’s not much when you can buy a 50lb (22 kg) bag of great, unsprayed, unwashed potatoes for $14CDN at the farmers’ market. But in my crop mix, it makes sense. We harvested somewhere around 1,000 lbs (454 kg) this year. In the usual 1-2 lb bags, some sold at a by the pound (not bulk!) price, and the majority used for CSA shares, that works out just fine… Of the Yukon Gold, Norland and Gold Rush, YG performed the best, from small, early, supertasty new potatoes to a good amount of nicely big mature ones—they’re not for storage, but who stores a pound!
Tasty baby bok choi
There’s a lot of tasty stuff still in the field, but for me the TASTIEST are the two varieties of bok choi, Joi and Mei Qing, planted in late August, and benefiting immensely from the ample rain and absence of flea beetles of the past weeks. They’re, um, just about perfect! Absolutely delicate flavor. Crisp, juicy stems and tender, entirely unbitten leaves. I’ll miss them when they’re gone…
Jerusalem artichoke flowers
Sometime over the last few days, the Jerusalem artichoke have started to produce pretty yellow flowers. That’s interesting. Without all this warm, way-past-normal- frost-date weather, what would they have done? They did go in a little late… And why do they look so…familiar? A couple of minutes online and it’s apparent that flowering is optional, largely dependant on location and conditions. And, no wonder, they—Helianthus tuberosus, aka sunchoke, sunroot, topinambour—are close relatives of the majestic sunflower (Helianthus annuus). Small world…
Winter squash
The Friday harvest finally included winter squash, and a tiny little harvest it was. These guys were on their own when it came to water, we just didn’t have time and gear to irrigate—given a bit of a rain break, they’ve tended to make out. Unfortunately, the timing of this year’s drought caught the plants later on in the season, late July into August, as they tried to fill out. Bottom line: super low yield and small squash this year, drip irrigation a must…next year. In any case, we did get enough for two rounds of CSA. Typically, the acorn squash came through best (Table Ace, Table Gold, Cream of the Crop), the butternut (Early Butternut) are…minuscule. Delicata was a first this year, I’m not sure how large they are usually, but likely bigger than this. And so on. Even the usually prolific and reliable, bright orange Uchiki Kuri, a Hubbard-type (Japanese Kabocha), didn’t do so well. Only the Sweet Mama buttercup came through with some decent dry weather size! So, off to the farmers’ market with an assorted 50 or so, none for sale, all for the CSA shares!