Week of September 8, 2014
Abbreviated Weekly Farm Report
From Friendship Farms & Fare
A Community Service To the Local Farming Community
Garden Overview
Summer is coming to a close. Fall begins on September 23. This is the Autumnal Equinox, when day and night are of the same duration. Days have been getting shorter since the summer solstice, and they will continue to shorten until the winter solstice in December. Equinoxes are those cosmic moments when the sun is directly above the earth’s equator.
The summer crops seem to know what is coming, although many, perhaps most, people do not. The Okra plants are in decline and more expired this week. The pods we are saving for seed collection are gigantic, and we’ll harvest those for next year’s seeds. More sweet potato leaves are yellowing, and their harvest time is passing. Eggplant is producing rather well, and there are still numerous buds on the plants. We harvested okra yesterday, and we’ll dig more sweet potatoes today.
We did a considerable amount of seeding for the fall.
Fall Planning and First Plantings
Fall seeding continued last week, and will continue today and for at least another week. We will postpone our initial fall plantings until next week (9/13), although we might get some very young arugula and swiss chard into the beds this week. For full details on this week’s plantings, see the seeding and planting summary in the full Farm Report at: http://www.fffsite.org/#!report/c1tuh
The first seedlings into the garden will be kales, collards, and broccoli. We will definitely plant arugula, whose seeds have generated with enthusiasm.
This is an early planting, judging from the new climate-change weather patterns, although it is consistent with recommendations from Florida Department of Agriculture and several planting calendars. We need new and revised planting guides that take into account climate change.
In recent years, September and even October have been too hot for the cool weather crops to develop. Nonetheless, we are again taking our chances and hoping for temperatures closer to historical norms. If it is too hot and the seedlings do not flourish, we’ll start others later in the season.
This fall we’ll go heavier on the cool-weather greens than we have in the past – collards, kale, and swiss chard. Our new experimental crop this fall will be spinach. Of course, we’ll have a healthy planting of arugula, and the famous Calabrese. Bell peppers will be planted in October, and we expect our habaneros to continue their irrepressible ways. We’ll forego cauliflower, and go heavy on broccoli. Tomatoes will be testers only, and only in set asides in the South Garden. Septoria has just been too hard on our tomatoes in previous years. For all plantings, we’ll use seeds from our collection or heirloom seeds from Seed Savers Exchange (http://www.seedsavers.org/).
Summer Wrap Up
As noted above, the summer farming season is coming to an end. Okra harvests will be lighter in the coming weeks, but if we can get 14 more pounds, we’ll reach 100 pounds for the season.
We will be putting energy into harvesting sweet potatoes over the next two weeks. It looks like the eggplant may hold on for several more weeks.
Okra
As noted previously, harvests continue to decrease. Gradually, the plants are perishing, although there are still many that are very strong and vigorous.
This past week we harvested 7¼ pounds, bringing our total for the season to 85 ½ lbs., total. Last year we harvested a total of 31 pounds. We have adjusted our target upward (from 50 pounds) to 100 pounds this year. It appears possible that we will make it.
We are well past the highest production period, and harvests will decline over the coming weeks.
Our larger plants are now over 8 feet tall, and remember, these are all from our own saved seeds.
Also, as a reminder, all of our plants are grown using seeds from the 3F seed bank, saved from previous years. So, these are closed loop, sustainable seeds and plants.
Sweet Potatoes
Harvest Continues
We harvested 27¼ lbs of sweet potatoes last week, from two beds. The total harvest stands at 146¾ lbs. We have five more beds to harvest.
This is probably the most labor-intensive crop to harvest. It surpasses even planting in terms of energy expenditure, physical exertion, and demands on stamina.
Last year, we harvested 150 lbs of SPs. This year, we are aiming at 250 lbs. We are probably now close to pace to reach that goal.
Some of the fruit are coming in a bit rugged in appearance now. They have clefts and splits. Ground-dwelling fauna, most likely grubs, and beetles have sampled some. Many shares who have enjoyed SPs in previous years are familiar with the appearance of these fruits, which would be “seconds” or “thirds” by commercial standards. You’d never see them in the stores.
Working with these seconds and thirds is not difficult: cut off the damaged skin, then bake the “naked” taters, whole, or slice the fruit into think wafers or coins. Slices and coins can be frozen for later use. Perfect and delicious. We need to make a video or slide show of how this works. It is really quite easy, and saves are large number of potatoes.
We planted 300 slips in our two gardens, and added another 50 or slips of our own. We acquire our slips from George’s Plant Farm in Martin, Tennessee. George’s is a family farm, with a wonderful story. To learn about the Dellinger Family and their farm, here is a link to their website: http://www.tatorman.com/
3F Produce for non-shareholders
Non-shareholders may order shares for $12 per week. For this nominal amount, contributors may request any items they desire from the weekly Share. Although we will assist with transmissions, it is the responsibility of the contributor to make arrangements for pick up of the share.
As always, non-shareholders may request single items from the share list for $5 per item. A full share for one week (any/all items) is $12.
Just reply using the website contact link if you desire anything on the list. We suggest non-shareholders start an account to cover costs of items.
The 3F Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) Project
Friendship Farms & Fare operates a unique small-scale (boutique) CSA, involving few participants, and using very basic management techniques. We are 100% organic and have a no-kill policy. No animals are harmed on our farm or in our kitchen. Our program is recommended for single persons, couples, or (at most) three-person families. The cost of a share is low by typical CSA standards: $300 per garden year (October through September). This works out to a bit more than $6.00 per week. Donations are also gratefully received, with all donations going to maintenance and improvement of the gardens and groves.
If you are interested, contact: friendshipfarmsfare@gmail.com
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Visit the Friendship Farms & Fare website for the Weekly Farm Report:
http://www.fffsite.org/#!report/c1tuh
Friendship Farms & Fare is a branch of Ecology Florida, a not-for-profit corporation. Contributions to Friendship Farms & Fare and Ecology Florida are tax deductible. To learn more about Ecology Florida, please visit the website:
http://www.ecologyflorida.org/
If you would like to support our mission and individual projects, you may share donations through our website (above) or at our mailing address:
Ecology Florida
PO Box 596
New Port Richey, FL 34656-0596
