2024 CSA Farm Update: Week 11
Hello Everyone and welcome to week 11 of the Katchkie Farm CSA. August here on the farm has been a very busy month. We have just passed our peak tomato harvest, which gives us a little breathing room and is a sure sign that our season is moving along. Upon walking through the fields last week, I was very surprised to find our delicata squash was ready for harvest. We usually end up harvesting our delicata in the last week of August or the first week of September. The earliness did not affect the flavor, as squash is very tasty this year. The dry weather we had at the end of July and early August seems to have made the squash extra sweet. My children can attest to their sweetness, as they have already sampled quite a few of them! Our peppers will make their way into the shares for the first time this week. A few years ago, I decided to stop growing bell peppers because of a particular fly that would burrow into the top of them leaving an entry way for water, which led to rot. To replace bell peppers, we grow a sweet Corno di torro, which may look like a hot pepper, but is actually quite sweet and juicy.
Fall brassicas also will start a bit earlier this year than in years past. They are all looking very nice. The kale leaves are getting bigger and filling in the rows, our early broccoli is a few weeks away from heading, and our first cabbages are just around the corner from harvest. I am not sure how the plants know, but it seems that when one crop ends early, there is another one that is ready sooner than expected. Talk about teamwork!
One of the most exciting events of the week is the completion of the farm crew housing. This is a project that was started back in February and after many forms, phone calls, and sitework Rodolfo and Elizabeth have moved in! With seasonal housing harder and harder to come by this an unbelievable asset to the farm.
Just because we are nearly done with our field plantings for the year, does not mean the farm is ready to slow down. This week we have our first fall cover crops to seed, garlic beds to prepare, fall carrots and beets to hand weed, soil tests to take, fall crops to cultivate as well as keeping up with our weekly harvests. One aspect of the season that is noticeably slower is the growth of plants. Crops planted in June and July almost seem to jump out of the ground while August and September planted crops tend to take a bit more time with the slightly shorter days. There is an unbelievable amount of intricacy on the farm this time of year with the long season crops such as winter squash and sweet potatoes ripening and coming to completion as well as the newly planting crops such as kales and radishes growing in what some would consider a second spring. If the farm were an orchestra piece this would be the crescendo in the growing season. Thankfully, there is still much more ahead!
Weekly Harvest Includes
From The Sylvia Center
From Julie Cerny, The Sylvia Center Upstate Garden Manager
While nature is busy maintaining ecological systems, we’re busy engaging with those systems— at The Sylvia Center, it’s growing a garden for young people to learn in and eat from.
An inescapable part of that process is that every year, in every garden, you have wins and losses. This year, The Learning Garden produced the most beautiful garlic the garden has ever produced. And, dare I say, the cabbage was perfect. Last year the bush beans (green, yellow and purple) were prolific; this year a groundhog mowed the seedlings to the ground. We’ll be lucky if we get a handful. The carrots flourished last year, and this spring two rounds of seedlings succumbed to hungry mice. At last, the third planting is looking vibrant and healthy.
When we’re cooking in our outdoor kitchen with our students, we’re co-creating with the ingredients and with each other— teaching them how to adapt to what’s in-season or to their taste buds. Few things bring me (and I think a lot of other people) greater joy than eating a meal that nature and I have prepared together. I hope the same joy has found its way to our students this harvest season.
Read Julie’s full post on the TSC website.