It was cold today, but the forecast is for much colder. This was the first harvest of the year where I decided to wear gloves for the whole thing, and my fingers were very happy for it. The vegetables so far seem to be fine with this whole cold thing, but we’ll see what the upcoming freeze brings. Typically what will happen in a freeze like the one forecasted is that we’ll loose a few of the more tender crops, which are already pretty much done. It will also do some damage to some of the heartier crops, but that’s mostly accounted for and will just mean extra careful cleaning and sorting during future harvests. If it gets really cold and is dry enough, perhaps a bit windy at the same time, we could loose more crops. Mostly we’ve covered everything that’s sensitive at all and that gives at least a few extra degrees of protection. I am a little worried that things might not thaw out in time for us to harvest on Thursday so we did some extra harvest today and we’re storing roots in the root cellar for a few extra days to give ourselves more time on Thursday.
Today’s share is a nice one. The escarole looks beautiful. Carrots are doing well so we’re giving extras of those, trying to make up for the parsnips and a few other roots that were eaten by voles, or just didn’t germinate for one reason or another. There were a few patches of radishes and turnips that looked pretty good, but none was big enough to give out for the full CSA, so we kind of mixed those up and are giving them out as the mystery root of the week (see below). Finally, there’s a small bunch of turnip greens which would make an excellent addition to something like eggs or fried rice, and a few lucky folks will get a little sampler of Di Ciccio broccoli, which makes lots of tiny side shoots, made even tinier by our thin soil.
The mystery roots are shown below. There are a few types of radishes. We cut up an particularly giant and beautiful purple one today that was incredibly sweet and crunchy. Some have red interiors, some white. Some folks will get a white Hakurei turnip, and some a Golden Globe turnip. The greens are from the Golden Globes. From left to right in the photo are Hakurei, Golden Globe, and three mixed radishes (which were all supposed to look like the one on the right, but for some reason came out different colors, I’ll have to call the seed company about that).
Enjoy the cold and the vegetables. I’ll be headed to Cambodia later this week for a little family vacation and to check out some agricultural projects there. I’ll be leaving the farm and harvests in the good hands of Karen, Louis and Forrest so the rest of the blog posts this year will be from Louis. I’ll be back in January, ready to start harvesting winter shares! Have you signed up yet?
Josh Volk
Vegetable Vagabond
Today’s share is a nice one. The escarole looks beautiful. Carrots are doing well so we’re giving extras of those, trying to make up for the parsnips and a few other roots that were eaten by voles, or just didn’t germinate for one reason or another. There were a few patches of radishes and turnips that looked pretty good, but none was big enough to give out for the full CSA, so we kind of mixed those up and are giving them out as the mystery root of the week (see below). Finally, there’s a small bunch of turnip greens which would make an excellent addition to something like eggs or fried rice, and a few lucky folks will get a little sampler of Di Ciccio broccoli, which makes lots of tiny side shoots, made even tinier by our thin soil.
The mystery roots are shown below. There are a few types of radishes. We cut up an particularly giant and beautiful purple one today that was incredibly sweet and crunchy. Some have red interiors, some white. Some folks will get a white Hakurei turnip, and some a Golden Globe turnip. The greens are from the Golden Globes. From left to right in the photo are Hakurei, Golden Globe, and three mixed radishes (which were all supposed to look like the one on the right, but for some reason came out different colors, I’ll have to call the seed company about that).
Enjoy the cold and the vegetables. I’ll be headed to Cambodia later this week for a little family vacation and to check out some agricultural projects there. I’ll be leaving the farm and harvests in the good hands of Karen, Louis and Forrest so the rest of the blog posts this year will be from Louis. I’ll be back in January, ready to start harvesting winter shares! Have you signed up yet?
Josh Volk
Vegetable Vagabond
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