Hi all,

We finally have the beautiful fall weather we waited all October for. We still have the regular fall lineup of greens. We also have some lovely little radishes that are ready this week.

Don’t forget to get out here before 5:30 (and after 4:00)- or you may find yourself having to pick in the dark.

I have some wonderful perennials (irises, daylilies, chives, columbine) that I would like to find homes for. Let me know if you would like some to transplant on your own place. Late fall is a wonderful time to move perennials.

Many of you are dealing with fall leaves right now. This is a time of resource collection for me – whenever I have to make a trip to town I always try to return with a truck full of leaves.

I use leaves in a number of ways that you might consider for your own gardens/plantings:

1.) Leaves make a wonderful grass suppressing mulch around perennials. I mulch very deeply with leaves in the fall and usually top it with straw so the leaves don’t blow away. A heavy leaf mulch retards weeds and simultaneously feeds the plant through the year.

2.) Being very high in the nutrients that my garden crops need, I will put up to 4 inches of leaves on top of the garden and till them in to prepare the soil for next year’s crops.

3.) I make leaf mold. Leaf mold is another name for composted leaves. To make leaf mold, simply pile all of your leaves in a corner of the yard and (if you’re ambitious) wet them down well. In a year and a half or so – you will have a wonderful, rich, soil-like product that is wonderful for fertilizing plants or making potting mixes.

4.) If I am very busy, I will simply (have Daniel) shred the leaves with the mower. This keeps the leaves from blowing much and fertilizes the lawn and the trees themselves. By late next spring, the earthworms will have pulled the leaf shreds underground.

So, as you look at all of your leaves, think ahead to the beautiful gardens you can create with them in summers yet to come.

Folks,

The rain continues! I will grumble about it being so wet but at least I don’t have hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of crop standing in the field. I am afraid that is the situation that many of our corn/soybean farmers find themselves in and it doesn’t look good for them. Of course, it is impossible to drive  humongous machinery on such wet ground but perhaps even more troubling for them is the fact that their crops have not been able to dry out. It is critical that corn and soybeans dry out considerably before they are harvested so that they don’t rot/mold in storage. That drying has not occurred this year and as it gets later in the year it becomes increasingly likely that it won’t before true winter comes. It’s a dramatic situation. Most grain farmers are in a great deal of debt to landlords as well as the fertilizer, pesticide and seed companies. These weather conditions are creating real hardship for all of them and may prove truly catastrophic for many. And more rain is in the forecast………

On a more positive note:

We have some beautiful greens available this week. There are a couple of large patches of lettuce that have finally matured to cutting size. We’ll have some spinach available as well- although not as much as I expected. I have lost two of the spinach beds altogether by allowing them to be over-harvested before they were well established; one more lesson for this year.

Late fall is when the members of the mustard family really excel. These include: the kales, the Asian Greens, radishes, turnips and Brussel Sprouts. Mustards really like the cool weather and the cold seems to bring out the best flavors in them.

In any case, today you will be able to cut a spectacular mix of mesclun-sized salad ingredients as well as radishes, turnips, Swiss Chard, Kale, Leeks, Italian Parsley and celery.

Be warned that we have some very soggy conditions out there today. It will be muddy. I’ll be available this evening to show you around and help you harvest what you are looking for and I’ll be happy to harvest for those who don’t want to brave the elements.

Looking forward to seeing you!

I was active in the garden on Saturday preparing for the freeze. Frosts and even “hard” frosts are to be expected at this time of year. A hard frost knocks out the tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, beans, okra, basil, sweet potatoes and the other summer crops. However, the cool weather crops such as lettuce, spinach, kale, chard and Asian greens usually improve in the cold and are not bothered by frosts. A freeze is another matter altogether, however. When temperatures drop into the mid-20s or below we have a freeze. At these temperatures, even the most cold hardy vegetables begin to show signs of damage.

So, when I checked the National Weather Service web site Saturday morning and saw the forecast for 25 degrees as an overnight low, I groaned out loud. I knew that even our cold hardy crops were in danger and going to need some protection. So, after harvesting and bringing in the winter squashes and pumpkins, I turned my attention to covering all of our cool season crops with row cover.

As I look out my window at the garden this morning, I see that what had been a green and beautiful garden just last Monday is now blackened rotting plant corpses with white shrouds hiding what green remains. Frankly, it seems as if we’ve skipped October and moved right into November.

But, don’t despair yet! We still have some good things for you this evening.

Available Tonight

Liberty Apples – The kids and I harvested these from the big apple tree by the swing set at our Bellingham Road place on Friday afternoon. They are flawed but delicious.

Storage Pears – These are from the 100+ year old trees on my grandparents farm. They will ripen in storage.

Pumpkins – We have a limited number of these available on a first come first serve basis (one per share). The four giant pumpkins are also available (but hard to move!).

Butternut Squashes – As many as you think you can use.

Lincoln Leeks – These are the light green ones. All parts can be used in soup stocks

Sweet Potatoes – These must be dug today!

Asian Greens -

Baby Lettuces -

Radishes -

Swiss Chard and more

This evening we have a couple of groups coming out. There is a student group from Monmouth College that will be out to look at the place and learn about CSAs in general.

Macomb’s Food Initiative Group will be out to meet at 6:30. Among other topics they will be discussing the porential formation of a coop store in downtown Macomb that would carry local and organic foods. We welcome your participation in that meeting.

Don’t forget that CSA time is between 5:00 p.m. and dark (6:40 ish). See you this evening and dress warmly!

Now that we are moving into June and I am done teaching, I’ll be available to help people on Thursday mornings (7:30 to 10:00 a.m.) as well as Monday evenings. We would like a few regulars on Thursdays to help balance out the harvest of certain crops (zucchini, cukes, snap peas etc.). We hope that this schedule will help accommodate those of you who sometimes have conflicts on Mondays.

Other news:

• As I write this, Allenhouse Plumbing is putting the finishing touches on a new water line to the garden. This brings me some peace of mind as the weather starts to get hot and the garden begins to need more water.

• I’ve finally caught up with my planting schedule. However, most of our crops are going to be later than usual. Warm season crops such as tomatoes, beans, zucs and cukes are likely to be three or four weeks yet before we can begin to harvest them and I just planted the last of the potato crop (extremely late).

• Harvestables next week include: Head lettuce, mesclun lettuce, radishes, tiny salad turnips, Swiss Chard, Red Russian Kale, Sugar Snap Peas (just beginning), parsley, cilantro, spinach, chives and probably a couple of other things that I’m forgetting.

• These rains the past couple of days were welcome. These extended cool days of spring help our spring crops (lettuce, spinach etc.) last but are delaying the development of the warmer season crops such as tomatoes, cucumbers and green beans.

• If you eat microwave popcorn I urge you to stop or at least stop feeding it to your children. I heard a truly disturbing account on NPR about the chemicals used to keep the popcorn bags from absorbing the oil and the harmful effects of these chemicals (especially when super heated). I’d be glad to give you a demo on how to make popcorn the old fashioned way if you’ve forgotten or don’t know how.

• Dan Murphy has offered to give a chef’s demonstration at our place this coming Monday the 8th at 7:00 at our place. He is going to show us how to make some vinaigrettes and some different ways that we can use the spring greens.

• We are hosting our annual Summer Solstice gathering at our place on Saturday, June 20th. Please save the date! We’ll have more details coming out soon.