Cold Open, Exit

Pilgrimage to Ringing Rocks County Park, also home to tallest waterfall in Bucks. Creek was dry but a hike up and down the exposed confluence of two disparate geologic formations where the water normally flows was pretty awesome.

Well that was a first for us. Harvesting on a frosty morning in September, in Summer. Was that a harbinger of a cold fall, winter, or just a strange, random aberration, an early polar vortex-like delivery? A plunge in temperatures this early in the almost-fall was a strange but welcome respite from summer's heat and humidity though I'm not ready to turn on interior heat (though we did fire up the kitchen wood stove a few of those chilly mornings I withheld from burning the aged and compressed organic matter taken from deep underground aka oil). Are we now in what is colloquially known as an "Indian Summer" or is frost and cold in summer irrelevant? From what I can tell no harm was done to any of the fall crops except for slowing down growth (this minor dry spell doesn't help). The summer crops we were still picking (peppers, eggplant, okra, tunnel tomatoes, basil) were at their annual departure date anyway. We'll probably see peppers and green/less ripe tomatoes for another week or so as we harvest all edible fruit. Speaking of basil, I hope you noticed it's longevity this year! Organic seed companies and universities finally bred a few varieties that are truly resistant to basil downy mildew which for the past five years or more has been the scourge that ended the basil season mid-summer (see picture below).

Johnny's Selected Seeds posted this picture comparing mildew resistant basil varieties to non-resistant ones. For many years all basil would look like the varieties on the left by August. The varieties on the right - Prospera and Rutgers Obsession - were the ones we trialed this year.

Last week we seeded the final crops for 2020. That's about 30 weeks since we sowed the first seeds this year. We also transplanted kale, lettuce mix, head lettuce, and swiss chard and filled up the space in the movable high tunnel plot as well as one of the two new caterpillar tunnels. Preparation began in the hoop house for next week's transplanting of lettuce, arugula, and greens mix. Since that space was used to harden off plants prior to planting outside, landscape fabric had to be removed and manually forked (aerate). It's possible we did the final cultivation of outside crops last week, too. We'll probably need to cultivate or weed at least one or two of the tunnel plots but maybe we'll be lucky. The new caterpillar tunnels will reside where 2020 garlic and straw briefly called home and the straw probably deposited more than one weed seed. Speaking of the two new tunnels, we should have the frame of one finished this weekend.

This coming week we plan to continue indoor preparations for fall growing. Tomatoes need to be removed to make way for fall crops. Soil needs to be forked, hoed, amended, raked. We'll probably continue to retrieve miscellaneous storage roots (watermelon radishes, purple daikons, beets, kohlrabi). By the way, last week we finished the modest sweet potato harvest. Thanks to the farm crew and members for that!

Happy Autumn!