Catalpa Ridge News–Volume 21 No 20–October 25, 2016

Last Delivery of the Season

News from the Fields & Farm:  Tonight is the last delivery of the season. Thanks to all CSA members for supporting our farm.

 

The seasons always come with a fair share of frustration and this season was no different with the drought conditions during most of the harvest year. Our crew is the best and we thank them as well for their dedicated work ethic during the harvest year as well as their pre-season and post-season work. 

 

The fields will be cleaned up by the crew starting next week and we have them work until it gets too cold to work outside.

 

Franklin Greenhouse Report:

We always like to save several items to the end of the season protected in the greenhouse as we never know what the weather will be like for the final week. This worked out perfectly this year as the chard, beets & peppers were harvested from the greenhouse.

 

Weather report: We did have a mild frost at the farm. Last year around this time we had a low of 21 degrees. Most of the farms in the area did suffer crop losses, though we were not severely affected. Perhaps it is our altitude that helps us out. Saturday was very cold, rainy and windy. It was difficult to start to put the delivery together.

 

We received about ½” of rain during the week and we hope it is enough to get the ground wet enough to till up the beds to plant garlic.

Sunday morning was still cold and the winds did diminish so the crew went to the fields to harvest what was left for the last delivery of the season.

 

Garlic Planting in November:

We are planning a trip to the farm to plant garlic for next year. The date will be in November (date to be set) we will start around 11 am. It is a great family activity as well. We start by “popping” the garlic. This is simply separating the garlic bulbs into their individual cloves.

 Then we head to the field for planting. The final step is to spread straw over the planted garlic to help protect them from the winter weather. In just an hour or two with the extra help we can plant thousands of cloves. When we are finished, we plan on having a late picnic lunch.

 

If you are interested, just send us an email and we will send you directions and of course the date.

 

Thank you for your support!