Fields of Plenty

September has been a summer extension this year. A few slightly cooler days, but mostly it felt like summer. Pushing 90 degrees, sunny, no rain, hot and a bit humid. With lots of warm, sunny days, we kept picking tomatoes, beans, sweet corn, and more. But the fall harvest waits for no one, and the sweet potatoes, butternut squash, and apples are filling the storage areas. Some people still think Labor Day is the end of the harvest season, but September is just the beginning for lots of crops. All the apples are just starting: Honey Crisp, Fuji, McIntosh, Red and Golden Delicious, Jonathon, Stayman Winesap, and October will bring even more. Vegetable crops like brussels sprouts, broccoli, and cauliflower thrive on the cooler nights that finally came our way at the end of the month. We also pushed to get seeds started for late fall and winter harvests. The hydroponic house is filled with lettuces, baby bok choy, arugula, basil and other herbs, for our CSAs and farm market. And ...

 One of the greatest challenges of being a small farm owner and manager is …. Managing family life as well as farm life. And August really brought that challenge home. August is one of the super busy months—harvesting all the summer crops like peaches, tomatoes, squash, beans, and starting on the fall crops like spaghetti squash, apples, and onions. Plus we are preparing tunnels and the high tunnel for the next season, starting thousands of seeds for fall and winter growing, transplanting, and planting the last outside crops, many of which will overwinter. The rain stopped and we have had some lovely days and some super hot days. Fortunately, all the summer crops love the heat! Tomatoes, lima beans, okra, peppers, corn, melons, peaches—the heat intensifies the flavor and gives us the wow that we all love.   The first summer apples have been full of flavor as well, so the heat has not bothered them! We were happy to see a second cropping of black raspberries, re...