We are definitely rounding the corner and finishing up this harvest season! This week are planting garlic, pulling now dead tomato plants from the tomato house, and making a new compost pile. This past summer, our farm served as a drop site for 100+ tons of aquatic plant material that was pulled out of various waterways in our area. Instead of landfilling this nutrient rich material, we are composting it with our sheep bedding material and will use it on crops for 2021.
Garlic planting is underway and we are planting around 4200 cloves of garlic today! Its really one of my favorite activities of the year as we wrap up the year and set intentions of the next season. We have been slowly growing our own supply of seed garlic over the past few years but saving and replanting the best heads of garlic and are very gradually selecting for the best types to grow in our area.
New Crops:
Gilfeather turnips- this is a cross between the rutabaga and turnip and the state vegetable of Vermont! It is really quite sweet, especially at this weekend's cold weather, and delicious mashed with some potatoes or roasted.
Brussels sprouts- These take a long time to mature! We planted the seed in May, transplanted out in the field the first week of June, weeded them many times, and side dressed twice with additional fertilizer until now! For now, we will have them in quarts, but in November, we will have whole stalks available. I firmly believe that they taste much better after a frost, so I hold off on harvesting until then.
