This morning Kimmy and I were busy pulling out eggplant, pepper, and some tomato plants. It's a sure sign that summer is over when these crops make it to the compost heap! While there are still many crops in the field, many of our beds are empty or covered with dead and mulched crops. October is not the most attractive time in the market garden, nor is it the most exciting. Many of the tasks revolve around pulling dead or spent plants, packing away supplies, and trying to keep our fingers warm on harvest days! Nonetheless, there are still exciting things going on around here. We are preparing to plant our garlic this week. We are tripling the amount of garlic we harvested this year with the intention of growing our garlic production significantly over the next few years. Eventually, we would like to grow garlic in wholesale quantities. I have also been doing some tentative crop planning for next year. While I do the final plan in the winter months, I do the preliminaries now so that we know which beds will need manure spread on them this fall. On that vein, we invite share members to let us know which vegetables they'd love to receive more of or which they'd rather not get so much of. I will be sending out a formal survey in later weeks but we always welcome informal feedback. This week our farm was featured in the Rural Voice publication that is delivered to rural addresses in Wellington, Huron, Perth, Grey, and Bruce Counties. At the beginning of September the editor of the magazine visited our farm and chatted with Rob about his efforts to plant high numbers of fruit, nut, and hardwood trees on our property. Those of you who know Rob know that he is passionate about mitigating climate change through the planting of trees. We have come to a time on Earth that simply recycling and using compact fluorescent light bulbs is not nearly enough. A paper published by Oxford University demonstrates that planting large numbers of trees on the landscape is the most feasible and effective method for preventing climate collapse. Turkeys A few members indicated that they were interested in purchasing a turkey. Please confirm with me via email if you want one for to be brought with shares this Wednesday. I will only bring turkeys for those that have pre-arranged. Fall Boxes In addition to our regular shares, we still have 6 fall boxes available for purchase. These boxes are $40 and will be pre-packed and delivered on the last day of the regular share pickup. Included in the fall box are all the fall storage crops such as: potatoes, carrots, beets, parsnips, squash, onions, garlic, and others. These crops will be cured for storage and should last for at least 1-3 months, depending on the vegetable. If interested, please email me. Weekly Share Contents Carrots Potatoes Beets Pie Pumpkin OR Acorn Squash Head Lettuce Spinach Ground Cherries/Tomatillos Onions Garlic This was our first year growing ground cherries for share members and they have been a very popular item! There will be plenty to go around this week and I thought you might like to know a little more about the ground cherry and some interesting ideas for using them up! http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/five-ways-to-eat-ground-cherries-98470003/?no-ist
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February 2020
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