Harvest #18 (Week B) should include pie pumpkins/winter squash, potatoes, carrots, Italian dandelion, arugula, Swiss chard, lettuce, basil, eggplant, garlic, tomatoes, sweet peppers, hot peppers, shishito peppers, and onions. Some items may be a choice. U-pick should include herbs, cherry tomatoes, tomatillos, and flowers.

What will hopefully be the final heat wave of 2023 descends upon the farm this week. I'm not too worried because days are shorter and the sun appears to be a bit lower in the sky, at least to start and end the day, than peak summer. Nights will hopefully satisfyingly cool off. Humidity is fortunately forecast to be moderate. On the bright side, the heat loving summer staples should enjoy this 4-day blast before beginning their slow then fast autumn decline. I'm guessing peppers, eggplant, and tomatoes have already peaked but will remain plentiful (except for cherry tomatoes, grown outside, which have really slowed down). Cucurbit family members zucchini, cucumbers, watermelon, and cantaloupe are in the rearview mirror but now we welcome their crunchier cousins the traditional butternut, the strange butternut, and the pie pumpkin for the foreseeable future. For some unknown reason the pumpkins didn't perform great this year but hopefully the others picked up their slack.

This coming week we're hoping to make a serious push to retrieve another 25% of the potato planting which will leave us with just one more variety to retrieve a week or two later. We'll also prioritize cleaning up fields, mowing, removing crop growing helpers like landscape fabric, plastic mulch, and drip tape, and then prepare those spaces for cover crops. Some areas will receive compost if they didn't earlier this year. Our deadline is the cold front inducing rainfall event forecast for Thursday and/or Friday.

We're slowly getting caught up on our battle with late summer weeds and after this weekend the fall carrots and fall brassicas (cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli) should be tidy. Weekly hoeing of successional bare ground transplants continues (lettuce, arugula, bok choy, mustard, kale, radishes, turnips, etc). This week we begin planting inside for late fall harvesting. Up first is lettuce mix (3 successions), followed by spinach (also 3 successions). Spinach seems to be extra sensitive to too much moisture so growing it under cover where we can control water is helpful. Unfortunately this doesn't always guarantee a quality harvest since spinach is also very susceptible to powdery mildew. To combat this we grow strains that have been bred to be resistant while ensuring tunnels are well vented with good air flow.

Bring gloves, water, a hat, sturdy shoes, and a pad for kneeling (if necessary for you)!

We meet under the large red maple at the end of the barn by the pick up room.

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