The Market Season.....

As the end October came to a close, it marked the end of the market season for 2014.  No more 4:30 am wake up alarms, no more late nights the night before market tying up loose ends - washing, bagging, or weighing produce, no more lugging canopies, tables and crates of freshly harvested produce.

 And no more steady income..... 

 However, there is still a lot of work to be done on the farm.

The fields need cleaned up ... rows of plastic need gathered,  irrigation lines need taken up, fields need mowed, the strawberries need covered before freezing weather sets in, and, the entire irrigation system needs drained and the fertilizer injector needs removed and stored in the basement for the winter.  All of these jobs need to be done before the ground freezes.  

And, it's time to start planning for 2015.  The seed catalogs should start arriving in the mail boasting of new varieties to try, we have to figure out a crop rotation for the fields, and I am still hoping to get an annual rye cover crop established on the open ground.  There are still a few things in the field yet to harvest.

We have tomatoes, romaine lettuce, kale, red beets, cabbage, cauliflower and broccoli growing in the high tunnels.  We are experimenting with growing the romaine over the winter.  If this winter is not as brutal as last winter, we should be able to have some most of the winter.  Our experiment is to see how long it will take to mature since the amount of daylight is much lower over the next few months than during the summer.

And while we will miss seeing our regular customers, it is nice to get a break from the demanding growing season.  However, we do look forward to seeing you again when we start our 2015 markets!

Tomato Humor

Just a little tomato humor to begin your November.  :)

And speaking of tomatoes...... we were very concerned about freezing temperatures Sunday night, so we decided we should pick through the tomatoes again.  It's amazing to still be getting 75 lbs of tomatoes in one picking..... BECAUSE it's early November... in south central Pennsylvania!  Once again I gotta say that I love my high tunnels!  Temperatures are to be in the mid-60's this week with overnight lows in the 40's, so hopefully we'll get another 75 lbs or so later in the week.

                                                photo of our big high tunnel with the moon rising over the back

Garlic time.....

The weather was beautiful today and now that we're getting caught up on our pumpkin and fall ornamental harvest, it was time to get the garlic planted.  We are planting one softneck and one hardneck variety.  It is nice to have the scapes from the hardneck to sell at market, but also nice to be able to sell some garlic braids from the softneck.  

Tomatoes!

Picked 100 pounds of tomatoes today.  Not too bad considering it's the third week of October.  Great to still have fresh tomatoes.

Weird and Wacky Fruits and Vegetables

Twins!

Vegetables and fruits usually grow into an unusual shape due to environmental conditions.

When a root vegetable is growing and the tip is damaged, it can sometimes split, forming multiple roots attached at one point. 

January......

What we do all winter? It's a question we get quite often this time of year.  Winter is still a very busy time for us.  Here is a list of some of the jobs we've been working on:

1. The first job on our list was for Larry and Caleb  to make sure we have enough firewood for next year.  We are fortunate that other local farmers allow us to cut up some of the apple trees they have pushed out to make room for new plantings.  We love to burn apple wood!

2. Larry has also been cutting back some fence rows so the trees are not shading our fields.

3. Normally we get one good cold week a winter, but the rest of the winter isn't as bad.  Not this year!  With temperatures in the single digits or even -4 on the coldest morning, for most of January, we had to work to keep fresh water to our chickens.  Larry would go to the hen house at 5:00 am to gather any eggs so they wouldn't freeze, then Caleb would check them again at 7:00 am before heading to catch the bus for school.

Of the 25 eggs gathered this particular morning, 13 were frozen and cracked open.  This encouraged an earlier egg gathering time.

3. About once a week, Larry and Caleb bring a gator load of wood to the porch.  They had to time the deliveries to work around the many snow and ice storms we had.

4. Larry thought he would put the chains on our John Deere 60.  This is the tractor that was my Uncle Mike's, and we bought it at his farm sale after he passed away a couple of years ago.  More on that story another time, but at the sale we were also able to buy the set of tire chains for this tractor.  It's amazing how much more traction it has in the snow!

5. Our biggest winter job is pruning the black raspberries.  With the firewood job getting done mid-January, Larry decided it was time to start pruning.  We both enjoy pruning.... you can really see how much you've accomplished when you look back over the row where you've already pruned.

black raspberry bushes ready for pruning.

after pruning

several rows to work through yet

Larry tried something new this year ... using hedge shearers for the initial cuts.

6. Shoveling, shoveling, shoveling!  We were snow-covered most of January.  Most of our snow storms only delivered a few inches at a time, but we still scraped it off the driveway so it wouldn't be icy.

The snow created some beautiful scenery.

7. Getting absorbed in seed catalogs and placing orders for this year.

8. Winter is also a good time to do some maintenance on our equipment.

9. FUN!  Even with all the jobs that need done in the winter, we still try to take some time for fun.

Larry & Caleb making ice cream

Jennifer walking in the snow