Frozen Tundra

You know it's cold when you open the walk-in cooler and it feels balmy! It's been a chilly week here at the farm - down in the mid-twenties almost every morning. The frost has been so thick it almost looks like snow. The farm is looking fairly desolate and bleak. This has essentially brought the growing season to an abrupt end, although we are continuing to harvest a few crops. It always amazes me to see the resilience of some plants that are able to nearly freeze solid and yet totally recover after they thaw out. The greens and brassicas are particularly good at this. As long as the leaves are not frozen when they are harvested, they seem to look and taste fine.

We have two more weeks to go in our market season. Many of our crops are done, but we will still continue to have a reasonably full table at the farmer's market. We have a decent supply of lettuce and all the salad greens, plus lots of kale, stir-fry greens, radicchio, frisee, potatoes, radishes, and of course our regular offerings of sprouts. We will also have a limited supply of broccoli, turnips, broccoli raab, and tomatoes. So even though the crops have stopped growing, there is still plenty of great food on hand at the market.

Activities on the farm have shifted from growing to clean-up. In the past two weeks we have dismantled all the hoop houses that were covering the tomatoes and peppers. (The tomatoes are now slowly ripening in the basement). We have also pulled up all the landscape fabric that was covering the melon patch. This is a really dirty and smelly job, and the cold weather didn't make it any more fun. The crew made the best of things - dressing warmly and and taking breaks for batting practice with frozen half rotten melons.

There are lots of clean-up and maintenance projects to go: mowing down old crops and around all the surrounding fields, cleaning out greenhouse beds, and fixing all the stuff that has broke this year that we haven't had time to deal with. All I can say is - thank God for winter!

Fall Colors and Mystery Brassica

Fall colors have arrived at Minglewood. It seems a little later to get started here this year than it has in past seasons. I know that the shift in colors is triggered by the shortening day length, but I'm sure the temperature and moisture has a least some effect as well. Perhaps with all the rain this summer the trees were less stressed than in other recent years and thus slower to change colors. For whatever the reason - they sure are pretty to look at.

The clear, dry and sunny days of September have left us for these past couple of weeks with a return to yet another cold and rainy spell. We received over 3 inches of rain in the past week, turning the fields to muddy mess once again. Fortunately, I did get the fall cover crops seeded before the rains started, so we have a nice crop of oats, peas, and vetch coming up over most of the farm. It's not likely that we will be able to use a tractor on the fields again this fall, so areas that still have vegetables growing on them will just have to stay open through the winter and get cleaned up in the spring.

Fall is prime time for all the brassicas - the vegetable family that includes cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, etc. It is possible to grow some of these crops during the main growing season of spring and summer, but they really thrive and do best during the fall. Each year we grow a selection of brassicas - some standard broccoli and kale, bunches of broccolini (Chinese kale), broccoli raab, Japanese salad turnips, baby Boc Choi, and all the mustard greens for our stir-fry mix. We also grow some unusual cauliflower varieties - usually Romanesque and a beautiful purple variety.

Much to our dismay, this years patch of Romanesque turned out to be quite the surprise. In past years this beautiful heirloom variety takes so long to form heads that we often don't have them until early November, after our farmers market season is over. So this year I planted them several weeks earlier, hoping to have them head up in October. For some reason they all started forming very open heads in early September and looked like they were bolting. The crop appeared to be a total loss and I was very disappointed, as this is one of my favorite crops to eat and always an eye-catcher at market. The heads are are supposed to be small
and conical, sort of like a seashell,
and they are bright green. Anyway, I ignored the
patch for the past month and then this past week
I noticed something very strange... perfect little
purple broccoli-like florets growing out of the tops of the bolted heads. They are truly bizarre, but what the heck, I cut a few and steamed them up, and what do you know- they were really tasty! Now my problem is if I sell this stuff - what do I call it? I think I've settled on 'Roman Sprouting Broccoli'. Now if I can just patent it before some one else discovers it I'll be rich! Look for it at market this week.




New this past week at market as well - those tasty little salad turnips you'll remember from the spring. Slice them up raw - like a very mild radish, or steam, roast, or saute if you prefer.
Don't forget that the greens are edible too.