What is still growing on the Farm this time of year? Well, kind of a lot. The Earth is still warm. Even though we have had several hard freezes already this Fall which has killed off many of the more tender crops, there still lives an abundance of good roots in the warm Earth. We continue to harvest radish, turnips, carrots, Hakureis, parsnips, potatoes, rutabaga, celeriac, leeks and beets. Some greens continue to thrive in the fields as well- typically the small young leaves can adapt to a freeze/thaw cycle a couple of times and then as the weather warms up again (like now), they will continue to grow to a good harvest size. The larger leaves of tender arugula and salad will be damaged from a heavy freeze so we harvested all of those before the last big storm. We do expect the younger arugula and spicy greens to to grow up enough for CSA shares on Week 3. We also have a hoop house full of recently sprouted arugula that we hope to harvest in December for CSA.
We will keep harvesting as fast as we can in the upcoming weeks which will allow us to store lots of good roots to continue through the whole of the Fall CSA. The Earth here in our region will typically freeze heavier sometime in December at which time we won't be able to harvest anymore. This often changes again sometime in mid to late winter when we often experience a warm spell. When this happens, we get busy harvesting any roots that we have chosen to keep in the ground and sometimes they are still awesome. Mother Nature really keeps us on our toes!
