Our end of summer field work is just wrapping up. We have next year’s veggie field spread with compost and cover cropped with oats and peas. It will be ready to go first thing in the spring when the snow melts and the soil dries out. The other open fields—the ground for next spring’s corn and this past year’s wheat are all covered as well. The tiny sprouts are just starting to poke their heads above ground, urged on by all of this hot, wet weather. With the next dry spell we will seed our wheat, saved from the crop we harvested in July, and finish up our last field of second cut hay.
Onions were harvested at the end of last week and were a terrific surprise. There was bushel after bushel of nice big globes showing no sign of rot or soft spots. It was hard to imagine in early August that we would have a crop at all. Likewise the winter carrots germinated beautifully and are sizing up into some nice fat, long roots. The dry beans are drying down and look like a good crop, despite the less than impressive size of the plants, who fought the bulk of the wet weather.
We have a marathon day planned for tomorrow, with apple collecting for another week of cider and our big annual vet visit. We’ll have the vet out to castrate this year’s bull calves, preg check the older cows and see to our new horse Rosa who has been suffering from a deep cough and lots of sneezing all week. We’re hopeful it’s a run of the mill cold brought on by the stress of moving to a new home and new pasture mates. All of this is added on to the regular rush of harvest and prep for share pick up.
In the Farm Shares
In the veggie share: spinach, apple cider, tomatoes, cabbage, red fingerling potatoes, green beans, sweet onions, bunching onions, swiss chard, kale, baby carrots, beets, lettuce heads, lettuce mix, mesclun mix, basil, herbs (including cilantro and dill), cucs, zucs, eggplants, peppers, and okra. Bring a jar to take some cider home!
In the meat share: Beef, whole and half chickens in the freezer. Fresh chicken next week.
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