Farm Friday, August 23rd, 2024

Playing chicken with the frost

Butternut squash baby. Might not make it. All photos by the author

Farming in Wisconsin can be a game of nerves.

In the spring, farmers will often try to give crops an early start, taking a bet that a late frost won’t wipe out the little plants. I used to play that game. I would watch the soil and try to plant as soon as it was dry enough and then protect my crops with frost blankets. I would have transplants ready and waiting for that early window. And I would have contingency plans for the possible late, killing frost.

I don’t play that game anymore. My game is all about the fall now. Over a decade ago we shifted our harvest season to coincide with the fall semester of the school year. It works better for a school farm. Now, our first markets are in the last week in August and we go until mid-November. This means we focus mostly on frost-tolerant crops (carrots, beets, broccoli family, greens, radishes, turnips, winter squash, and some herbs) and we need to time our “summer” crops (tomatoes, peppers, zucchini, cucumbers, green beans, sweet corn, cut flowers, eggplant, basil, melons) to start producing at the end of August.

This year I think I am losing fall harvest game, at least for the summer crops. I need a few more weeks of warm temperatures.