Over-eager trees may be dropping their leaves and under-eager kids may be heading back to school, but it’s not fall yet! We still have a full month of summer left with temps due to reach into the high eighties this week. Combined with cool nights perfect for sleeping, who doesn’t love the late summer?

A recent addition to our already busy harvest schedule is the potato crop! We have begun digging the early varieties of potatoes, which were planted down the road at the Parkland field. We have had some enthusiastic help with the dirty-but-rewarding task of unearthing these starchy beauties and are very happy with the results so far. I’d like to give a shout out to those who spent unpleasant hours squashing Colorado Potato Beetle larvae in years past because this year we had unusually low pressure!

 

The dry weather has been ideal for the potato digging, but not so great for fragile carrot, beet, radish, spinach, and turnip seedlings that are trying to get established for fall harvesting. Thus, we have had to come to their rescue using 200+ feet of garden hose to deliver some much-needed water and encourage their already rapid growth.

 

Almost synonymous with fall Brassica plantings is the onslaught of caterpillars of various types. These pesky critters including cabbage loopers, diamondback moths, and imported cabbageworms, which all like to chow down on the hearty leaves of our cabbage-related plants. Fortunately, we have the means to combat them biologically by applying a pest of our own. Bacillus thuringiensis var. kurstaki (referred to as Bt) is a bacterium that is only lethal to bugs in the Lepidoptera order (think: moths & butterflies) and only lethal when consumed. This allows us to very specifically target only the pests who wish our plants harm!

 

I want to thank everyone for remaining attentive to our PYO signage in the field, in whatever form it may take. If there are special instructions (ex. “don’t pick this kale”) or something is roped off, it is only to sustain the crop for longer harvest. Some rows are tight to walk down (thanks to luscious plants), but there are great rewards for those who walk all the way down the row to pick!

 

See you out there in the sunshine!

 

Kenneth