This year’s pumpkins eventually made it to the newly roofed farm stand. It makes a nice autumn scene, especially on a fine, balmy fall day like today. I suppose this coming together of pumpkin and stand is a fitting progression and a good sign, since both are works in progress. For the last couple of seasons, I’ve PLANNED to open the stand full-time for at least a day or two a week, but various things got in the way. And pumpkins have been too bulky to take in quantity to the market so far (we absolutely pack a pick-up truck; a roomy, custom-fitted trailer is on the big-purchases-when- I’m-able list). At least, the pumpkins are now on the stand! Several CSA shareholders have picked some up, and I’ve given away a few, so it’s working, kinda. The greenish-gray ones are Jamboree, the white ones are Lumina…
Autumn
And now for something completely different…
Looking through photos on the computer today, on a rainy afternoon after the farmers’ market, I ran into this one. I’d saved it from somewhere on the Web three or four years back (public domain, I think). It’s a striking shot, although whether it’s advertising safe pesticide handling or the scariness of chemical agriculture, I’m not sure. And, hey, that could be me, all dressed up and getting ready to go—you’re never too tiny to do some spraying! I looked up the pictured product, Monsanto Lasso. It is, or was until recently, the biggest selling agricultural herbicide in the US, used “everywhere” on corn and soybeans. It’s also a “known or probable carcinogen” and apparently messes with human reproductive and developmental functions as well. Hmmm… Luckily, I use a wheel hoe…
Last big harvest of the year!
And then there were two! For the last big Friday harvest of the season—it’s the 18th and final CSA share and second to last Saturday at the farmers’ market—the crew was down to Conall and me. It was a rainy one, with the ground soaked from a couple of days of showers, but it was all smooth. With the cooler, cloudy conditions favoring a little extra storage time, Conall did the Brussels sprouts and eggplant yesterday. And with the shortening days, the mesclun growth has slowed to a near halt, and there’s not enough for CSA shares, so that fairly time-consuming task was out. In fact, things went so well, we managed to take a couple of hours off and head into town to pick up some things, and were still done by 7 pm. In the pic: bok choi and beets up for rinsing, with carrots and Brussels sprouts already in the bins. In today’s harvest: the spicy greens mix (arugula, tatsoi, mizuna, mustard), about 20 lbs (9 kg) of mesclun, collards, parsley, beets, carrots, bok choi, kale, a few broccoli and cauliflower, plus potatoes, onions, garlic, pumpkins and winter squash from storage. Conall’s done for the season tomorrow, so next week for the last farmers’ market harvest, it’s down to one. Time flies…!
Harvesting Brussels sprouts
That was interesting! I’ve harvested Brussels sprouts by picking the individual heads, but for our first bigger harvest of about 60 plants, to speed things up, I decided to take the whole thing.
First try: chopping the base of the stem with the machete-like harvest knife was like hitting a piece of hardwood. Wow! Tough and cut-resistant… Next up, a sharp hatchet fared no better: a solid whack hardly penetrated.
So, we pulled ’em up, roots and all. They set in pretty good, but the main roots are shallow, so even with knocking off the clumped soil, this went quickly.
Next, we discovered that removing the roots is easily accomplished with a short, fairly rigid hand saw. Once we figured out the right starting angle, one and half strokes cut through the stems like butter: zip-zip!
Then to the harvest knife: swipe off the head, and then, holding the base of the stem, about four downward lopping strokes, rotating after each, to shear off the leaves. Kinda odd looking results, but efficient all around.
The sprouts, catching up from the summer drought, haven’t all filled out, still, a healthy yield of full-size to tiny heads from each one.
It was a completely novel, different harvest process than for all the other veggies. All the chopping and cutting was…fun!
UPDATE: The kind of odd presentation was loved at the farmer’s market—certainly said, “Fresh!”
Getting ready for garlic
Home for next year’s garlic, carved out of the oats yesterday, is looking good! Mow the oats (the riding mower got a good workout and did a reasonable job), spread aged cow manure from the barnyard, and rototill in with the Kubota compact tractor. Simple! What sight is sweeter than a rich, freshly turned new garden plot, ready for another round?! :)
Cows at the gate
Rampaging cattle! Well, more like, a few cows wandering into the field. This happened once before, three years back, and that time, the potential for disaster was a little greater. Unthinkably, TWO critical gates had been left open overnight, and around a dozen cows headed in at dawn. It was also around June, with a whole market garden full of new crops, there to be ravaged. Just by chance, the intruders were spotted early, and it took three sleepy people, lots of running, and a pick-up truck, to head ’em out (it’s a 9 acre field). Luckily, the cows were most interested in the hay, on the way there trailing giant hoof prints down just about every bed in the garden, leaving the veggies otherwise untouched. So it turned out fine. This time, with most of the cattle gone from the farm, the remaining little posse of five cows and a bull, all friendly and laid back, made their way up an 11 acre pasture and slipped through the garden field gate in the four or five minutes when my eye wasn’t out there. I’d been using the Kubota compact tractor to move manure from the barnyard, about a dozen trips, with a few minutes of blind time each trip as I spread on the new garlic bed. Crafty, stealthy guys… There was a moment of sharp…concern as I eyed the wide open double gate across the field, leading to the side road and on to unfenced houses on the subdivision, and the wide open two-lane highway not far down. But the cows were absolutely fixated on the first lush patch of oats they encountered. With the other gates closed, herding them out went surprisingly smoothly. The whole adventure: 20 minutes! An interesting break…
Making mulch, part 3
The grass and alfalfa mix spread in the greenhouse a few days ago is drying nicely—it’s almost done! It was a tad touch and go at first, the rows in the field were starting to turn black and decompose, and no sun in sight. So I turned it a couple of times a day for the first couple of days, doors wide open on both ends let through lots of air…and things worked out! Seems like a nice mix, with good bulk, not too fine. Then again, my mulch experience is in its early days, so we’ll see. Rough calculation: there should be enough to spread a fluffy 3″ (7.5 cm) over the new garlic plot. This experiment so far: not too labor-intensive, room for easy improvement to the process, seems like it would scale well (for covering larger areas), and RELAXING (some fieldwork is particularly enjoyable)… Grass-and-alfalfa mulch may have a big tiny farm future!