Hi All,
As fall approaches, it’s nice to have some new crops coming in as the summer crops wind down. We will be harvesting all of the winter squash this Tuesday from 4-5:30pm, so come and help if you have a little extra time during share pick up. There will be at least 7 different types of squash: delicata, acorn, carnival, butternut, red kuri, spaghetti, blue hubbard and some pumpkins and gourds too. Other crops which should be coming in this fall are: arugula, Asian greens (next week), turnips, salad mix, head lettuce, radishes, celeriac, more potatoes, leeks, kale, onions and garlic.
The field tomatoes are on their way out so I encourage everyone to pick their own sauce tomatoes (I can direct you where to go). Hoop house tomatoes, peppers and eggplant should continue to produce for another couple of weeks but the cooler weather slows down their production.
I’ve been busy tilling old beds and seeding winter rye and oats as cover crop. Cleaning and sorting garlic and onions has been a time consuming job which I would love help with. There is also a lot of clean up work that can be done anytime. This past Sunday I extracted honey from one of the hives at the farm. I didn’t get as much honey as I had hoped from that hive and I suspect the bees may have suffered from mite infestation because their honey production dropped off dramatically. The queen in the other hive never laid eggs, which is very bad because the life span of a worker bee is only 6 weeks. I attempted to “re-queen” the hive but was evidently unsuccessful because I never found much brood or honey.
In the shares:
Carrots
Winter Squash
Onions
Garlic
TOmatoes
Peppers
Eggplant
Kale
Cucumbers
For those who still need to put in volunteer hours at the farm, the Pratts could use help digging potatoes Monday afternoon Sept 19 from 9:00 – 11:00 am and weighing potatoes for distribution Tuesday morning Sept. 20 from 9-11 AM. Please contact them by email (cpratt@exeter.edu) if you can help.
You can RSVP for the Harvest Potluck which will take place on Tuesday, September 20th starting at 5:00 pm tomorrow at pick up. Please also contact Tracey at tosbornemiller@yahoo.com if you have raffle items. Swap two volunteer hours for a raffle item!
So far the donations include: Two framed 14 x 20 giclee prints on archival paper with 8 archival inks. One is a great Horned Owl and the other is a Red Tailed Hawk, by Revell Taillon. (Value $200); An evening sail for 4 hosted by Nancy and John Potter; A “coupon” for 1/2 bushel (20 lbs) of Pick your Own Apples at Apple Annie.(Value $30.00); Handmade Pottery by artist Leslie Haslam; Fish Tile, By artist Bob Osborne; Free Oil Change
