Growing A Farmer: Dog Days

I know I say this all the time but how in the world did it get to be September?!? Time flies when you're... farming. August has been very kind to the farm this year. We haven't had very many hot days. In fact fall has already hinted at us with some crisp mornings and cool breezes. It's not here yet though, we have several 90+ degree days forecast for this week.

Harvest

Summer crops have been coming in strong and some are already done. I did several successions of Cucurbits (Cucumbers, Squash, Zucchini, and Melons) and they all got sick and died around the same time. I do have some more cucumbers coming in the hoop house and a little more zucchini coming on but the melons are done. I also grew some cute little pumpkins called Teddy Bear and they ripened a lot faster than I expected. Luckily they store well and will be ready to eat when people are ready for pumpkin.

Teddy Bear Pumkin

Our Cantaloupe did great this year and are delicious

Cantaloupe and Seedless Watermelon

Assorted Peppers

Heirloom Tomatoes, Peppers and Cherry Tomatoes

Some of our Pepper varieties

We harvested 200lb of Carrots in one day, that was a good day!

Easter Egg and D'Avignon Radishes

Colorful Cherry Tomatoes

Jimmy Nardello Peppers

Slicing Tomatoes, Peppers and Cherries

Heirloom Tomatoes

First Grape Harvest, Concords. These little guys are absolutely Bursting with flavor!

Mustard Greens

D'Avignon Radishes

First Eggplant and Tomatillos

Production and Cultivation

The leaning and lowering of the Heirloom Tomatoes has been going great. We have already more than doubled production from last year. By this time last year the heirlooms had already succumbed to multiple diseases and most of the fruit had bad spots and rot. This year most of the fruits are big and full and beautiful. The only real damage has been from the groundhog who snacked on them for about a week before we caught him.

Here are a few pics of the progression of leaning and lowering...

You can see below how all of the leaves and shoots have been pruned off the bottom of the plants up to where the fruit is currently ripening. Also notice the angle is more severe as the top of the plant gets moved down the line. I am in love with this technique. I have to feed these guys every week since they are making so much food. I have been fertigating (running fertilizer through the drip irrigation) with a mixture of compost tea, a small amount of 4-3-3 fish emulsion and some 0-0-6 because they need a lot of potassium to make healthy fruit.

Pepper flower

Concords

Concord Grapes- It was hard to tell when they were ripe but about 2 weeks after this picture they were all dark purple and a robin was eating them. That's when I knew. Sometimes you just have to wait for a sign.

There are a few of these skinks that hang out in the stables
and watch me when I wash veggies

Delivery sample

Happy Arugula growing

Our wild turkey nursery is in full swing again this year

We had a visit this month from Chef Ben and some folks from Commissary. They helped harvest 200# of carrots and did some major weeding. It was great to have such a helpful visit.