Here’s a look to the north from my new favorite photo spot, on top of the farm stand. We’re down to mainly brassicas, oats and rye (that’s the low, darker green section poking in on the left). The oats has started to die off and topple over, leaving collapsed areas that look as if animals had bedded down… The days lately have mainly been overcast and quite cold, just above 0°F, with a fair bit of rain that leaves the ground mucky. My hours a day spent in the field are winding down, a two or three hour job at a time, weather permitting. Elsewhere, there’s lots of putting in order and stowing away, and clean-up in the Extended Milkhouse where all kinds of junk accumulates over the year. Getting set for winter.
Turn to the left and here’s the view over the greenhouse. The grass-alfalfa mulch is still inside, along with stacked rolls of row cover.
Gee, and here I was looking at the Rye, thinking, “Tiny Farm Crop Circles – Yay!” ;-)
Yeah, I was excited there for a while. The circles started a few weeks back, didn’t look dead or damaged, just bent, so I figured it was a combination of wind and the weight of water from rain or dew. But I REALLY thought, ah, finally…my own ALIENS in the field! I can’t imagine that’s how fields of oats normally look, with big circles all through… Now, though, you can see they’re dead at the bottom, so maybe they were dying off then. It’s a mystery I have to live with…for now! :)
I checked out the Toronto weather report and it said some nights were in the low teens(Fahrenheit…around -30 degs C?); and the brassicas are still taking those temps…wow…just how low can they go?
I was just out there, checking things out and snapping a couple of pics. It’s been snow everywhere for the last couple of days, after a fair dumping (5-6″) overnight Thursday. Most of the last of the brassicas are almost completely buried in snow, but the curly kale is sticking up, and it’s a good texture and tasty. I’ll see about the rest when the snow clears off… They won’t survive forever, but they do take a lot of cold and freezing in stride… I’m just doing this for fun, I don’t hope to offer snow-harvested veggies… ;)