Today, we started bringing in the garlic. A gentle loosening of the soil with a digging fork—don’t spear those bulbs!—a gentle pull, and it’s done. When to harvest is a bit of a toss-up, at least, as far as I’ve made out from my three years of garlic growing. The general indicator of leaves dying off is a start, but I’m a little wary from last year’s harvest, where the garlic left only a week or so into August, with half the leaves still green, gave up a whole lot of split bulbs (the cloves began pushing back and the skin at the top split open). So now, I dig up a few, and if they look good, it’s time to harvest! This first haul is about a quarter of around 2,400. It’s off to the barn for curing in small stacks. The rest should be done in the next few days!
Veggies
Pumpkin update
After a marathon session of pigweed pulling, the pumpkin patch appeared, looking rather orderly and much expanded from one month ago. So, all’s well with the PUMPKINS, on to the hopefully last major de-pigweeding of winter squash. I noticed back-to-school ads in a local paper already, and as obnoxiously early as that is, we are also preparing for that final summer stretch in the field. Oh well, tomatoes, peppers and eggplant are doing great, garlic is soon to be pulled, the best eating and market days are still to come!
Eggplant on the way
Tucked away and safely shaded from scorching sun, a Dusky eggplant happily expands. The earlier tiny eggplant puzzle, while never solved (eggplant and peppers were fruiting extra early, tiny fruit on tiny plants), no longer matters, and the brief Colorado potato beetle onslaught was successfully weathered. All varieties of eggplant are doing great (that’s Dusky, Black Beautry, Vittoria, Fairy Tale and Millionaire), with abundant fruit well ahead of any other year on this tiny farm!
Sunflowers show up!
The first few sunflowers are unfolding, this one’s from the Go Bananas! mix (there are also burgundy Claret and familiar orange Sunrich). It’s a little bitten and tattered—the rough and ready look!—but a welcome sight nonetheless. The cutflower garden‘s received very little attention since seeding, and only maybe half have flourished in spite of lack of water and a fairly weeded-over state. The flower test plan included minimal care (which is what they got), so I’m not disappointed, although it’s always nice when crops take care of themselves (this doesn’t happen often enough :)! Anyhow, we should have at least a couple of hundred fair sized sunflowers, and some others, all headed for the CSA shares. I hope the zinnias do well!
Dinner!
After a fairly lazy day in the field, half of it spent waiting for the ground to dry out a bit after an intense thunderstorm (only 15mm, though), it was off to a farm a couple of miles down the road to get some local rainbow trout for dinner. Then, a quick tour of the garden to pick the fixin’s: new potatoes (Norland, Yukon Gold), yellow and green beans (Indy Gold, Derby), summer squash (Sunburst, Flying Saucer…yes, FS), beet greens (mainly Detroit Dark Red). Nestled in by the beans, the first tomato to turn color, a Stupice, of course, not quite ready to munch, but only days away! And so, except for salt, pepper, olive oil and butter, your basic local dinner!
Risk crop
Protecting a final planting of the season, Jo and Conall lay row cover over a selection of summer squash. Also transplanted today from the squash family, more cucumber, an extra early muskmelon, and a couple of early maturity winter squash because there’s space. All of these are pretty much risk crops, with 50-65 day maturity up against our average first frost of around Sep. 20. They could have gone in a week or two earlier, but I’m gambling on another warm fall, with only a mild frost or two to get in the way (against which, row cover once again!), and MAYBE a harvest through October. Of course, the weather can be relied on less than ever, BUT, warm autumns seem to be a good bet. If this pays off, I’ll have some interesting veggies after the standard, safe season for ’em is over. Nothing ventured… You take your chances!
Red onions, golden beets
Veggie variety is great: different tastes, textures, shapes, colors… From the start, it seemed only natural to grow several varieties of each crop rather than just the most “efficient” one. This has worked out to at least a couple per crop (this year, two types of spinach so far, three potato, two corn…) to many (at the extreme end, 50+ varieties of tomato). The biggest difference is quite often in maturity date: crops fairly similar in taste and appearance can be two or three weeks or more apart in maturing for harvest. Sometimes the difference is only skin deep. The Red Baron spring onions in the pic are only red for a couple of layers, but they look great when you get ’em. The Golden Detroit beets taste a little different from red varieties, but the fun (for me, at least) is mainly in the striking and unusual golden-orange flesh. Look before you eat!