Week of September 15, 2014
Abbreviated Weekly Farm Report
From Friendship Farms & Fare
A Community Service To the Local Farming Community
Garden Overview
Although temperatures are still in the 90s, Summer is almost over. Fall begins on September 23. 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 okra harvest is shrinking with each new collection. Seed pods are gigantic, and we’ll harvest those for next year’s seeds. More sweet potato leaves are yellowing, and harvest time has passed. 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.
This past week, we did a considerable amount of seeding for the fall, and we’ll do more this week. We’ll also begin installing the first seedlings in the gardends.
Summer Wrap Up
As noted above, the summer farming season is coming to an end. Okra harvests shrinking each week, and will continue to diminish in the coming weeks. The sweet potato leaves are yellowing, and the wilting earlier each day it does not rain.
It continues to amaze how well the plants know their seasons and their life-spans. If only we knew our life and purpose as well as these – the generous plants who have sustained us since we first made them our companions 8,000 years ago.
We will be putting energy into harvesting sweet potatoes over the next two weeks. Sweet potatoes are the most challenging and physically taxing crop to harvest. The reward is worth the labor, but there is a weight to the work, unlike the lighter labor of seeding, transplanting, and installing young plants in the garden. It looks like the eggplant may hold on for several more weeks.
Fall Planning and First Plantings
Fall seeding continued last week, and will continue today and for at least another week. We will postpone our first substantial fall plantings for another next week (9/22), although this past week we installed samples of kale, swiss chard, and collards. For full details on this week’s plantings, see the seeding and planting summary in the full Farm Report at: http://media.wix.com/ugd/643592_f491781e4e904353982dc2d816bdf70c.pdf
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/).
Okra
This past week we harvested 4¾ pounds, bringing our total for the season to 90¼ 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 now appears that we will either just miss or just barely make the target. Still, this is an impressive harvest.
We are well past the highest production period, and harvests will decline over the coming weeks.
We should have okra through September, and the close of the garden year.
Sweet Potatoes
Harvest Continues
We harvested 12¼ lbs of sweet potatoes last week. The total harvest stands at 159 lbs.
We harvested one more bed last week, and we’ll aim to do at least two more this week. We have four more beds to harvest.
This is by far the most labor-intensive crop to harvest. It surpasses even creating new beds 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 will probably come closer to 200 lbs. It all depends on the yield from the remaining four beds, which are the largest on the farm.
Some recently harvested SPs are 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/
Companion Fauna
Sphinx Moth: This large moth is not uncommon in Florida. Look for it at dusk feeding on plants that bloom late in the day or evening. Our Sphinx Moth was observed enjoying the nectar of our 5 o’clocks, around 7:00 PM on Tuesday (9/9). The Sphinx Moth has a very long proboscis and hovers like a humming bird. They are as large as some humming birds, and are easily mistaken for them. These are wonderful creatures, which are fascinating to watch. We are happy to welcome them to our ecosystem. Here is Youtube video of a Sphinx Moth feeding at 4 o’clocks, very much like the moth at the 3F farm. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaTfKLO96gE
See the full Farm Report for all companion fauna from this past week.
Planting & Harvest Notes
Start of Fall Seeding
Seedings: Collard, Vates,; Kale, Lacinato,
Garden Starts: Swiss Chard, Five Color; Collards, Georgia Southern.
Harvest Notes: okra, sweet potatoes, herbs, arugula, bell peppers, eggplant
Vermipost: no harvest
Bat Guano: no harvest (no bats)
Next Workday: TBA
If you would like to join us for a fall workday, send your best Saturday(s) in October.
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 use permacultrures principles. 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 less 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
