Folks, it has been a while since my last post here on Farmer’s Notes. To say the least, we have been busy. If you are new to the blog, welcome! I usually post once per week with topics ranging from philosophical musings to brass tax of farming.
Our farm has reached the peak of productivity. Last week we yielded 200 pounds of tomatoes, 130 pounds of snap beans, 600 bunches of greens, and several hundred pounds of chiles. Everyday we harvest. One day was spent just doing beans and tomatoes. The next was chiles, tomatoes, and squash. Soon it will be onions and winter squash.
In my experience, Colorado often receives a kiss of frost around this time with several good weeks of weather ahead. If we can temper the lows we will be looking towards more weeks of tomatoes and peppers. If not, we are cleaning up fields, tearing out plastic mulch and drip irrigation, planting cover crops, and finishing remaining harvesting.
Temperature dips remind us the growing season does end. Crops in the field come September are at risk. Winter squash and onions are two large ones for us. Since these crops need to cure for a couple weeks before selling it is important to catch them.
One squash I am particularly excited about is the Stella Blue Kabocha. A squat, gray and blue fruit that has delicious flavor. I first grew Stella Blue in 2019. Since winter squash are known to readily cross pollinate and produce hybrids I tested our seed lot purity again in 2021. Seeing success, I pulled from the original lot and isolated several plants this year. We are seeing tremendous fruits finishing in these beds. Our CSA and restaurant partners will have to help us recover the seeds during the eating stage. A great symbiosis we have used to gather seed from cucurbit crops. You can buy the squash, but we need the seed back.
As crops leave the field, cover crops enter. We will be using winter rye heavily this fall to rest our chile and winter squash ground. Rye will germinate this fall and remain green throughout the winter, protecting soil from wind erosion and adding carbon to the soil.
The rye will also attract migratory flocks of Canadian Geese to the farm. They forage the winter greens and leave behind large dropping of fresh manure for 2023 crops. I have learned to leave certain crops standing through the winter for this reason. The geese love the kales and collards and will eat the plants down to stems over the course of the winter. Also the tall plants help catch drifting snow and keep the soil under the winter blanket much longer than bare ground.