It’s officially fall, and we’re reaping the rewards of a sunny, warm, and productive summer.
Contrary to popular belief, September is actually peak season on the farm. Fruiting crops like eggplants, peppers, and tomatoes are still producing. Long-season crops like onions are cured and ready to sell. Sweet potato harvest has begun, and the cooler weather brings back kale, bok choy, hakurei turnips, and more! With more crops to harvest than ever—and fewer daylight hours to do so—it’s definitely not a dull time to be a farmer.
Brassicas for days!
Rachel is a carrot harvest extraordinaire!
Stacks on stacks of sweet potatoes curing!
The first few weeks of sweet potato harvest have gone well. Back in spring, our preferred variety became unavailable due to a crop failure from our supplier. A comedy of errors meant we didn’t find this out until the week our slips (rooted sprouts) were supposed to be planted. Thankfully, our strong network of local farmers came through for us. We sourced extra slips at the last moment from Baylee at Long Table Farm (thank you again!). This is a new variety for us, and so far, they look great. They’ll cure for the rest of this week —and then we’ll find out if they taste as good as they look. Radicchio and rutabagas are also looking great and should be available at market and online starting in October.
Sadly, the ginger is not looking so great. We’re not totally sure why. It could be the quality of our seed ginger, the lack of rain this year, the weed pressure that got away from us early in the summer, or something else entirely. We’ll have some ginger at markets for the next 3 weeks. Once that’s gone, that’s it for the season. We plan to brainstorm some solutions over the winter. Hopefully, we can correctly identify the issue to improve the yield next year.
On the flower side, dahlias are in full swing! If you grow dahlias and dig up your tubers each year, you know they’re a labor of love. If you’ve never stored them before, stay tuned for next month’s blog post—we’ll share a how-to guide for saving your tubers for next season. Fresh flowers will be available until first frost. After that, our everlasting dried bouquets and wreaths will make their annual debut.
Amid all the harvesting, we’re also squeezing in some seed sowing. September is a big month for planting cover crops, plants grown not for harvest and sale, but to support soil health. Their living roots support our soil microorganisms and help prevent erosion. While cover crops take growing time and bed space that could go to cash crops, we believe the long-term benefits to our soil health are well worth the investment.
This year, we’re also sowing some extra seeds as we experiment with winter growing! Farming in New England has a built-in seasonal rhythm: fast-paced summers and slow, restful winters. We love that cycle. But, we also agree that it would be great to have more food ready when markets return in April.
Sunset on tomato season!
To have more food in April, we need to start some crops now. This month, we seeded overwintered carrots and transplanted scallions. As we head into late fall and early winter, we’ll start broccoli raab and more carrots. It’s a small experiment for now. We’ll see how it goes!
Happy fall!
Kiersten
Here’s the full crew! We said goodbye some of summer crew members at the end of August. Thanks for a great season, Ethan, Hannah, and Julia!
