Community Supported Agriculture for the Upper Valley of New Hampshire and Vermont
2010 Week Seventeen
September 6 & 9, 2010
Hello CSA-ers:
We had a big push last week to sow cover crop seeds in advance of Hurricane Earl. We tilled, spread compost, broadcast, and re-tilled, planting everything from annual rye to hairy vetch to oats, peas, or alfalfa, depending on what crops are scheduled to grow where in 2011. Then it rained for all of three and a half minutes. Sigh.
We’ll be setting the irrigation back up today to make sure we get a good stand of these important crops.
I used to think that we planted cover crops in order to hold the soil through the winter, but here in the Northeast, where the ground either freezes or is covered with snow, there isn’t much erosion to worry about in the winter months. The primary reason for cover cropping is to provide good habitat - food and shelter - for the organisms in the soil that actually do the heavy lifting of feeding our crops. If populations of these bacteria and insects are fat and happy come spring time, our plants will be, too. This brings me back to what I think of as the primary goal of organic farming: growing fabulous soil, using the revenue from cash crops to fund the operation.
Lest you feel jilted or concerned that we care more about dirt than food, well, your farmers have to eat, too, and soil just doesn’t cut the mustard. Or so I’m told.
A word about pick your own crops: please make sure to harvest in such a way as to ensure future growth. We try to put signs at the end of the rows or notes on the chalkboard to describe how to do this. Generally speaking, only on basil do you cut the stems; on everything else, you just pick leaves, starting with the lowest. We had a few folks cut the stems on kale plants last week, which killed those plants. Too much more of this, and we’ll be out of kale… a real tragedy with cold weather (and associated soups, stews, and other kale-philic dishes) in store. So here’s the rule of thumb: if what you’re after is leaves, only harvest the leaves, with basil being the exception that proves the rule.
OK, on to the haul:
Greens: some combination of spinach, sweet mesclun, or lettuce.
Continuing favorites: carrots, all manner of tomatoes, peppers, onions, garlic, and assorted melons (last week for these.)
Returning favorites: basil and red potatoes.
In pick your own: French green beans continue (I mowed the fence line for easier access), as does rainbow chard, herbs, basil, and kale. For you pesto fans, go ahead and hit the basil hard - it’s about done growing at this point. For kale, note that we have three types growing in the garden: the familiar curly green stuff (‘winterbor’, which was hit pretty hard last week) as well as lacinato (‘dinosaur kale’ with big, flat leaves) and red Russian (self explanatory.) The latter two have lots to offer.
Norah’s on vacation this week, so you’re stuck with me. See you later,
—Chuck