Farm Friday, Sept 1st, 2023
First market day of the year
Our farm is weird. We don’t do any markets in the summer. We time our first market to be the week of the back-to-school night, and then we go til the end of October. We shifted from the typical peak harvest season of July and August to September and October in order to have the harvest happen in the context of the school year. We want plenty of meaningful work for the children and adolescents who come out in the fall.
In order to shift the harvest season to September and October, we focus on “fall crops” which can take a frost. These include lettuce, spinach, arugula, bok choy, cabbage, broccoli, kale, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, carrots, beets, cilantro, parsley, and radishes. In addition, we grow a lot of “storage crops” like onions, garlic, potatoes, winter squash, dry beans, popcorn, and pumpkins. Finally, we have a number of “summer crops” that we plant late, so they peak in September, like zucchini, green beans, melons, cucumbers, sweet corn, tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, and cut flowers.
Because it has been a warm summer, many of the crops have been ready ahead of schedule. Oh well. We have canned a bunch of tomatoes (like about 10 gallons of sauce!). And we have frozen some zucchini. But there is more food preservation to come. Much more.
We are glad to finally start getting all this food to people. The first market was something of a “soft open” on Tuesday because school hasn’t officially started yet. Next Tuesday is the big one because it coincides with the first day of school.
Thanks for reading!
In writing news, I published a version of my genealogy column about the herring camps in the Middle Ages in Denmark. Something is fishy about that story.
I am considering cross-posting to Substack. Thoughts?
