We are excited to share that fall seeding is underway this week! As we shift to the cooler seasons, we’ll be moving away from the Cucurbit and Nightshade family of crops and will be planting a lot of Brassicas, root vegetables, and cooler season herbs like dill and cilantro. These crops not only prefer cooler temperatures, but can tolerate the shortened daylight hours of fall and winter. The first round of planting this week included collard greens, kale, Napa cabbage, baby bok choy, and mustard greens. We’ll be planting more over the coming weeks so stay tuned!

The last round of cucumbers will be making their way into season very soon! After a short lull between rounds, you can expect to see cucumbers making their way back to the Farm Stand this weekend. Since this will be the first harvest from these plants, they will be available in very limited quantities until they hit their stride in the next couple of weeks. These cucumbers are a slicing variety that is great for enjoying in salads, sandwiches, smoothies, or even a batch of lemonade along with some of our herbs. 

In Season at the Farm Stand: Okra, Eggplant, Zucchini, Cucumbers (very limited), Lunchbox Peppers, Jalapenos, Bell Peppers, Shishito Peppers, Poblano Peppers, Lemon Balm, Basil (Italian, Lemon, Thai, and Tulsi), Baby Butternuts, and Flower Bouquets and Stems

Remember the French breakfast radishes we seeded in the high tunnel at the end of September? We harvested the first of them this week and they are now available at the Farm Stand! Since radishes grow fairly quickly, they are typically the first root veggie to make their way into season in the fall. French breakfast radishes have a delicious crunch and a mellow bite. Enjoy them raw in salads, slaws, and sandwiches for a peppery bite. Or, you can roast them until tender to mellow their flavor.

Did you know that a large portion of the varieties that we grow during the cooler seasons belong to the brassica family? Brassicas, also commonly referred to as cruciferous vegetables, prefer cooler temperatures and can tolerate reduced daylight hours thus they’re grown during the fall, winter, and early spring months. Members of this extensive family include leafy greens like kale, collards, and mustards in addition to broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, and Brussels sprouts. There are also root veggies in the Brassica family including radishes and turnips.

We’ve been harvesting leafy greens from our roselle plants all summer long and now that the daylight hours are growing shorter, they’re starting to produce these gorgeous red pods! After our roselle plants bloom and the flowers drop off, they form the ruby red pods you see below. The red portion is called the calyx and it surrounds a green seed pod. The calyx has a tart cranberry-like flavor that can be used for teas, jams, sauces, and chutneys. We expect to make the first harvest within the next couple of weeks so keep an eye out at the Farm Stand!

In Season at the Farm Stand: French Breakfast Radishes, Kale (Curly and Dino), Komatsuna, Collard Greens, Amara Mustard Greens, Baby Butternuts, Korean Melons, Asian Eggplant, Roselle Greens, Okra, and Long Beans.

The first round of carrots has been officially seeded in the high tunnel! Since we direct-seed carrots densely, it’s the perfect opportunity to use our Jang push seeder to make quick work of the task. Using this tool, we’re able to sow several rows of carrots seeds in just a couple of minutes! This varietal of carrot is called Ya-Ya and takes about 60 days from germination to harvest. We hope to be able to harvest them for you in time for Christmas!

Remember the high velocity farming system that we mentioned last week? We’ve already harvested radishes and arugula using this system and within the next week, we’ll be making our first harvest of baby bok choy! This variety of bok choy is called “Shanghai”. Just like our arugula, it grows exceptionally fast and has more of a heat tolerance than other fall leafy greens like kale and Swiss chard. We should have the first baby bok choy of the season ready for you just in time for our next Farm Tour on Saturday, October 21st!

Did you know that a lot of the crops we grow during the cooler seasons belong to the brassica family? Brassicas prefer cooler temperatures and can tolerate reduced daylight hours thus they’re grown during the fall, winter, and early spring months. Members of this extensive family include broccoli, kale, radishes, and turnips.. We just transplanted a succession of brassicas including cauliflower, curly kale (pictured below), and Brussels sprouts. While the Brussels sprouts won’t be ready for a couple of months, we should have the first kale available in early November!

In Season at the Farm Stand: Arugula, Radishes, Eggplant, Long Beans, Okra, Malabar Spinach, and Korean Melons.

Coming Soon: Baby Bok Choy, Bush Beans, Swiss Chard, and Kale.

We planted the first round of summer squashes in the field last week! We have one row each of green zucchini and Zephyr summer squash. We’re excited to share the Zephyr variety with you because it produces slender yellow summer squashes that are light green on the blossom end with a deliciously nutty flavor. Since summer squashes are quick growers, this will be the first of many successions planted throughout the spring and summer. We expect to start harvesting the first squashes in about a month!

In addition to the summer squashes, we planted two different cucumber varieties: Bristol (a standard slicing cucumber) and Max Pack (a pickling cucumber). Similar to summer squashes, cucumbers are fast growers. We’ll be installing trellises for them in the next couple of weeks to ensure their vines have a place to climb and sprawl. Farmer Anna is especially excited for the return of cucumbers because they’re one of her favorite crops! She sees a lot of cucumber, tomato, and onion salads in her future…

As we slowly transition the farm for the upcoming warmer season, we’ll be phasing out our cool season crops, namely our brassicas. The last round of cauliflower will be harvested this week and next. We’ll also be harvesting the last of our green and purple broccoli over the next couple of weeks. Make sure to take advantage of these delicious veggies before they make their way out of season! You can pick some up at our Saturday Farm Stand from 9am-noon or at any time from our Self-Serve Farm Stand.

In Season at the Farm Stand: Baby Carrots, Spring Onions, Cauliflower, Purple Broccoli, Celery, Hakurei Turnips, Icicle Radishes, Kohlrabi, Collards, Cabbage, Kale, Spinach, Lettuce, and Cilantro.

Fall planting continued this week with kale, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, collard greens, and Swiss chard going in the ground. Since this first succession of fall crops will most likely experience warmer temperatures than later ones, we’re starting with varieties that can handle the warmth like our trusty Monty broccoli and Song cauliflower (pictured above). We’re optimistic that we’ll have the first broccoli and cauliflower for you in early to mid-November! As for leafy greens like kale or Swiss chard, we’ll have them for you much earlier in the next 3 or so weeks.

We’re harvesting a new eggplant variety for you: Calliope. It’s an Indian eggplant with a smaller, oval shape and beautiful purple and white striped fruits. Calliope (pictured below) has a firm, meaty texture and mildly sweet flavor that is great for curries or stir-fries. We highly recommend pairing these eggplants with some of our summer greens and peppers in a Thai or Indian-inspired curry like this one!

This has been an amazing year for our peppers! In years past, we’ve sown a separate fall succession of peppers but this year, our plants are still going strong in the high tunnel! As we find ourselves still harvesting an abundance of sweet peppers, we highly encourage you to stop by the farm stand and pick some up! Peppers are a great veggie to preserve, whether it’s through dehydration, canning, or pickling. Farmer Alex recommends stocking up on sweet peppers, roasting them, and freezing them for later use. You can read about the roasting process here.

In Season at the Farm Stand: Butternut Squash (limited), Okra, Asian Eggplants, Italian Eggplants, Cucumbers, Sweet Peppers, Roselle Greens, Egyptian Spinach, and Zinnia Bouquets.

Coming Soon: Arugula and Radishes

We’ll have something new for you at the farm stand this weekend: butternuts! These are a smaller variety called “Butterscotch” and they have a deliciously sweet and nutty flavor. Farmer Alex recommends roasting and stuffing these butternuts with a mix of your favorite protein, herbs, and goat cheese. Or, you can roast them until the flesh is tender and blend it up to use in baked goods just as you would pumpkin puree. We will have limited amounts of these at the farm stand so first come, first served!

Over the past week we direct-seeded several different fall crops in our prepared rows. Direct-seeding simply means that we planted the seeds directly in the field rather than starting them in trays in the greenhouse. We often do this with crops that we want to plant densely (like arugula and other baby greens) and root vegetables. Here’s what we direct-seeded: carrots, dragon’s tongue beans, arugula (pictured above), watermelon radishes, icicle radishes, and Easter egg radishes. Since the arugula and radishes grow fairly quickly and have already germinated, we should have them ready for you in the next 2-3 weeks!

We finished installing the new film and shade cloth on the greenhouse just in time to plant the next succession of fall crops. We’re really excited about this round of seeding because it includes a few new varieties as well as some old favorites. We sowed seeds for broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, bok choy, head lettuce, fennel, scallions, celeriac, and celery. We also planted some cooler weather flowers like nigella, larkspur, and strawflower. It’s shaping up to be an incredibly delicious fall season!

In Season at the Farm Stand: Butternut Squash (limited), Okra, Asian Eggplants, Italian Eggplants, Cucumbers, Sweet Peppers, Roselle Greens, Egyptian Spinach, and Zinnia Bouquets.

October 14th, 2021

We braved the rain yesterday to get four of our beds transplanted. We planted a mix of veggies, herbs, and flowers for fall. Here are the veggies we planted: Napa cabbage, Minuet Chinese cabbage, Merlot cabbage, Red Giant mustard greens, Green Wave mustard greens, Wasabina mustard greens, lettuce, and fennel. We also planted Thai basil, marigolds, and zinnias. Our goal for the fall is to not only grow delicious veggies and herbs for you but to be able to offer beautiful seasonal flower bouquets as well!

One of our favorite root veggies just made its way back into season: Hakurei turnips! The Hakurei turnip is a quick grower, taking just over a month to reach maturity after germination. Often referred to as a “salad turnip”, Hakureis can be eaten raw as well as cooked. They have a crisp yet tender texture with a flavor that is mild compared to other turnips. The flavor of a Hakurei is sweet and almost fruity, especially when eaten raw. If you’re craving something warm, you can easily add these turnips to soups or stews, or create an easy side dish by roasting them or braising them.

In addition to Hakurei turnips, yellow crookneck squash just made its way back into season as well. This great thing about this tender and sweet summer squash is that it can be used in both sweet and savory recipes! Try shredding it up and using it in place of zucchini in a warmly spiced zucchini bread recipe or in a batch of fritters spiced with curry powder and topped with a dollop of tangy yogurt. You’ll be able to pick yellow crookneck squash and Hakurei turnips at our next farm stand on Saturday from 10am-noon. We hope to see you there!

September 30th, 2021

Who’s ready for some fall vegetables?! Several different fall crops were transplanted over the last week to join our Monty broccoli. Song cauliflower, a more heat-tolerant variety, was planted in addition to White Russian kale, Green Glaze collard greens, and Jericho lettuce. Though there’s still a bit of a wait when it comes to the broccoli and cauliflower, the leafy greens will be ready before you know it. We plan on harvesting some of the kale in the baby stage for you to enjoy.

The melons we direct-seeded in the high tunnel are doing very well. They’re currently taking up the back half of the high tunnel and will be using every bit of that space as their vines begin to grow and sprawl. The front half of the high tunnel was cleared and renovated in preparation for planting more fall tomatoes and Bai Bu Lao pole beans. We grew these beans during the summer and loved them so much that we decided to plant one more succession this year.

We’ll have a new leafy green for you at the farm stand this Saturday: Tatsoi! This leafy green resembles spinach in appearance but is actually a member of the vast Brassica family. The leaves of Tatsoi have a buttery soft texture and a mild flavor that is both sweet and mustardy. It’s incredibly versatile in the kitchen as it can be eaten raw in salads or substituted in any recipe calling for spinach. If you’d like to try some, come see us at the farm stand on Saturdays from 10am-noon or on Wednesdays from 4-6pm.

August 18th, 2021

Fall preparations are underway on the farm! Though it’s still pretty warm out, we’re beginning to plant brassica seeds to get a jumpstart on the next season. We direct-seeded a mix of arugula, Wasabina mustard greens, and mizuna into one of our beds. We are pleasantly surprised at how quickly this mix germinated! If all goes well, we should be harvesting this delicious mix of leafy greens in no time.

The first succession of brassica seeds were planted in the greenhouse as well. This first succession is focused on varieties that are meant to be more heat tolerant. Among the varieties planted were Monty broccoli and Green Glaze collard greens. Monty produces well-domed, bright green heads of broccoli and is purported to have excellent heat tolerance. Green Glaze is a collard variety with smooth, bright green leaves. It is recommended for warm coastal states so we’re hopeful it will do incredibly well in this first planting!

Each crop comes with a list of potential pests and when it comes to summer and winter squashes, squash vine borers are right at the top. Adult squash vine borers are black and orange moths that lay their eggs at the base of susceptible plants, i.e. squash plants. Once the larvae hatch, they bore into the center of the stems which ends up preventing the flow of water to the rest of the plant. Eventually, the plant wilts and dies. Our recent succession of zucchini seems to be the most affected by squash vine borers. They appear to be leaving our JWS butternut squashes alone, most likely due to the fact that Cucurbita moschata (their species) stems are woodier and less hollow. These plants are covered in fruit and are doing very well. You can see a baby butternut in the photo below.

January 27th, 2021

This week we’re seeding a spring cover crop mix in order to prepare our vacant beds for summer crop planting. Since we operate with a no-till system on the farm, cover crops provide many benefits for the soil. Our cover crop seed mix is made up of daikon radish, vetch, crimson clover, and rye grass. These crops will work together to suppress weed growth, enhance biomass production, and fix beneficial nutrients to the soil like nitrogen. When we are ready to plant in our cover cropped areas, we will mow down the existing crops which will create a natural mulch layer for our summer crops.

Have you ever enjoyed frisée in a salad or on its own? Frisée has light green highly serrated leaves and is in the chicory family along with endive. Since this succession of frisée is getting close to harvesting size, we’re bundling up each bunch in order to blanch the core. This process will yield lighter colored inner leaves that are more tender and less bitter in taste. Though it seems like a tedious task, it definitely makes a world of difference for the final flavor!

Have you had a chance to make it by the farm stand yet? We’ve been enjoying the interaction with our community and answering any and all of your veggie questions! Since we’ve been getting a few requests for tomatoes, we figured it would be beneficial to let you know what’s in season at the moment based on the average temperature range for our area. Everything we’re harvesting prefers the cooler winter weather. This means that lettuces, root veggies (beets, turnips, carrots, radishes), and brassicas (broccoli, cauliflower, cabbages) are making up the majority of our harvests. Once we get past the last frost date, we’ll be able to transplant warm weather-loving crops like cucumbers, peppers, tomatoes, and summer squashes.