Farm Update: October

Webster University VolunteersThis time of the year we start our bulk harvests.  We spent weeks digging potatoes, the middlebuster plow turning up the soil as apprentices and volunteers hunted for the treasure underneath.  One day all the pumpkins came into the high tunnel to cure before moving to storage in the basement, followed by the delicata, acorn, and butternut squash.   We are still digging our sweet potatoes, curing them in the high tunnel and then loading them into crates to keep in the basement.  Next we’ll bring in storage turnips and huge daikon radishes, perfect for winter slaws.

The cover crops are in and are beautiful fields of oats and peas and rye and vetch. The last few weeks of the apprenticeship program we spent a lot of time seeding our fall crops and hoeing them to ensure we started off ahead of the weeds.  The first week of October we seed our salad mixes in the high tunnel.  We’re experimenting with doing a lot more intercropping in the high tunnel this year.  Rather than just doing full beds of “cut and come again crops,” like arugula, sassy mix and spinach, we are seeding a line of radishes and salad turnips between them.  These quick crops will come out after just 28 days and then we can keep cutting our salad mixes all winter.  We have also seeded fall peas and carrots in the high tunnel, along with some frost-hardy herbs, cilantro, dill and parsley.

Our apprentices finished at the end of September with a walk around the farm, reflecting on the season.  Although the farm feels quieter without them, we are grateful for the energy of volunteer groups, “Octoberite” farmies, and the Work Experience program high school students.

Every part of the year brings a different light to the farm, and the CSA pickup after our last farm enrichment was lit only by the light inside the garage.  Our persimmon trees are starting to drop sweet fruits, mornings are chilly, and the fields at the start of harvest are coated in dew.