We gathered in the barn Tuesday for morning meeting as river mist began to lift and the warmth of the sun strengthened. The thermometer had read 44 degrees earlier in the morning, when I checked it as I waited for the tea kettle to boil. Phew, no frost! But the night’s forecast was for a low of 38, and in our experience our farm tends to be 6-8 degrees colder than the predictions. So we spent the day battening down the hatches and getting ready for our first cold temps of the fall. We had 2 cold nights to get through and now a string of warmer weather has returned, so it was worth it to put in some overtime to get through the cold snap and extend the harvest of our warm-weather crops for a bit longer.
The arugula, mesclun and spinach that are just sprouting and the lettuce and radicchio with tender leaves got a blanket. We use a delicate floating row cover called Remay to protect many of our crops from cold in the spring and fall. The remay traps in the warmth of the soil and shields the plants below from the clear, cold sky, just like a portable greenhouse. We used a giant sheet of the same material on our sweet potatoes to protect the foliage and give the tubers a couple more weeks to size up under ground. Remay is a great tool, but for some of our bigger crops it’s not feasible to blanket them for the night. Luckily, the pears were ready to harvest, so we kept them safe in the fridge, along with the apples that were picked last week. That left 2 plantings of corn, several beds of peppers and eggplant, and all the flowers, veggies, and herbs in the pick-your-own gardens to protect. Enter the irrigation! By running sprinklers over these crops through the coldest part of the night were able to save them from frost. The relatively warm water from our irrigation ponds keeps the crops above the freezing point, as long as we keep it running continuously. We don’t deploy this strategy lightly, as it means hourly checking and restarting of pumps throughout the night, but if it gains us an extra couple weeks of summer veggies we’re up for the task.
We just weren’t quite ready to say goodbye to summer’s bounty! That said, these couple cold nights were a reminder of what’s to come, so I hope you enjoy this week’s veggies and do some picking in the gardens if you can. And never fear; there’s a bounty of cold-hardy crops and keepers still to come!
Cheers
Norah and the Sweetland Crew
Week 19 Harvest (24 weeks total)
| Crops | Half Pint | Brimming Basket | Veggie Monster |
| Sweet Corn | x | x | x |
| New Red Potatoes | x | x | x |
| Sweet Peppers | x | x | x |
| Spicy Salad Greens | x | x | x |
| Kale | x | x | x |
| Tomatoes | x | x | x |
| Garlic | x | x | x |
| Lettuce | x | x | |
| Radishes | x | x | |
| Spinach | x | ||
| Carrots | x | ||
| Leeks | |||
| Mesclun Mix | |||
| Radicchio | |||
| Shallots | |||
| Tatsoi | |||
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Farmers Choice Shares Includes items with x
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Free choice shares choose any 7(HP), 9(BB), or 11(VM)
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What’s Cooking This Week
You can find ingredients for all of these recipes in our farm store! We source meats, dairy, grains, beans, sweets, and more from local and sustainable producers. Don’t forget to use your CSA member discount by entering your account phone number in our POS (member discounts are automatically applied to LocalLine purchases for off-farm delivery). Have a recipe you’ve been loving? Share it with us and we’ll feature it here!