The endless Summer is certainly something we strive for here at SLG but sometimes you have to face the facts. Fall is here and arriving in a cool, rainy way almost letting us know it means business. There is still a lot of green up there in the trees but we are starting to see the hues of orange, red and gold. October is merely days away, you can almost hear the excitement from all the Halloween decorations as people close pools and pack up for the season. On the farm we’ve always had a philosophy of staying in the fields as long as possible up to Thanksgiving. It is always a tough call to make, deciding when to say no more planting in the field. Alas the time has come all eyes are focused on the inside now.
We will be doing a few things on the farm over the next few weeks that I guess you could look at as our packing up for the summer. First and foremost is getting as much inside space prepped and planted asap. This involves clearing out the tomatoes we can easily let go of. Things like beans, cucumbers, melons, callaloo, we must all say good bye for the summer. There is also recovering and updating a high tunnel in Durham, putting up low tunnels in the fields and getting row cover ready to cover those hoops. Not to mention a few solid hours spent cleaning up and organizing irrigation and insect netting, so they are at the ready for us next year. There is still a fair amount of cover cropping to be done, most of which within the next two weeks. Beyond cover crop the only things going in the ground outside, like carrots, onions and garlic will be to overwinter.
With the 103rd Durham Fair passing by as fast as Summer, we are now back to our regular on farm pick up schedule. Also with it Sweet Sage Bakery breads, available Friday on farm pick up only. With only 2 more Chester markets left of the season J and J are eyeing the calendar for that first non market Sunday. The Madison market continues until the Friday before Thanksgiving and December 16th is slated for the last New Haven market of the year. A big thanks to everyone who came out to support us this weekend in the less than desirable conditions. We can’t say it enough, without all of you we could not do it.
Tomorrow we plan to pull out our first sweet potatoes of the 2023 crop. We have not grown them very much here at SLG so needless to say we are excited to see the results. It is a modest planting just half a high tunnel, but you gotta start somewhere. With a little luck they will be in good shape and ready to harvest. Then we can get them all out of the ground freeing up space for some transplanted lettuces and Asian greens. We are also on the cusps of harvesting the first ginger of the season. It may make an appearance at the markets and if it does be assured online next week. This years crop holds much more promise than the previous, the turmeric too but that will come a month or more later.
Have a Great week