Week of October 6, 2014
Abbreviated Weekly Farm Report
From Friendship Farms & Fare
A Community Service To the Local Farming Community
Garden Overview
Fall began on September 23. The summer crops are largely spent. Okra is declining quickly now, and the harvest is shrinking dramatically. Seed pods are gigantic, and we harvested more of those for next year’s seeds. More sweet potato leaves are yellowing, and harvest time has passed. Eggplant appears to have ceased producing fruit, although there are still numerous buds on the plants. We harvested a little okra yesterday, and we’ll dig more sweet potatoes today.
Rain is always welcome, but as we enter the seeding and planting season, heavy rains and overcast conditions become problematic, drowning seeds and seedlings, inhibiting root and leaf formation, and generally weakening young plants. This is happening here at our nursery. We’ve moved some cell trays inside to prevent the seeds and seedlings from drowning or being stunted.
Our seedlings are developing every slowly, and we’ve lost more than half those we planted.
We did relatively little seeding for the fall.
See October 6 Farm Report, at:
http://media.wix.com/ugd/643592_de07d97e907b4e87b16eeb1ca567a24e.pdf)
We are in a transitional period, and harvests are light. Our friend, Rose at Market Off Main, reports that none of her vegetables are coming from Florida yet. Most are still coming from California. This is no surprise. September and October are transitional months in Florida, when summer crops cease producing and fall crops are not yet mature.
Just as with the big growers, our summer crops are largely spent and the fall crops are just getting started. It will be weeks before big harvests start coming in. In addition, we had a real set back with the unseasonable rains of the past few weeks.
Okra is declining quickly now, and the harvest is shrinking dramatically. We are still harvesting, however. Seed pods are gigantic, and we harvested more of those for next year’s seeds. Sweet potatoes are still being harvested, and the leaves are still good. We noticed a few small eggplant fruit this week, and we might have some for shares. We harvested a little okra yesterday, and we’ll dig more sweet potatoes Sunday.
Rain is always welcome, but as we enter the seeding and planting season, heavy rains and overcast conditions become problematic, drowning seeds and seedlings, inhibiting root and leaf formation, and generally weakening young plants. This has happened here at our nursery. We lost about 90% of our seedlings, and will have to start more in the coming week.
We did relatively little seeding this week.
Fall Planning and First Plantings
Our early planting has been largely unsuccessful. As recommend by the Florida Department of Agriculture, and various commercial planting guides, we planted fall and winter crops at the appropriate time. However, rather than the cooling and drying conditions we should have had, we continued to experience full-on summer weather patterns – heat, humidity, and heavy rains. The new climate-change weather renders current planting calendars obsolete. We need new and revised planting guides that take into account climate change.
We again took a break from fall seeding this week due to the persistent rains and overly damp conditions. We will again postpone our initial fall plantings another week at least (to 10/13), with hopes that we’ll have healthier seedlings. Once again this past week, young plants were washed out in the rains. Swiss chard did a little better this week, and some of the plants we have in the ground are showing signs of healthy development. It is still early, however. Our collards are making the best progress, and we have a number of healthy little plants.
The first plants into the garden will be kales, collards, and broccoli. We will definitely plant arugula, whose seeds have generated with enthusiasm.
In recent years, September and even October have been too hot for the cool weather crops to develop. Nonetheless, we will continue our seed starting and garden transplants, and continue to hope that temperatures and precipitation get closer to their historical norms. The coming week will be very helpful in this regard.
This fall we are going heavier on the cool-weather greens than we have in the past – collards, kale, and swiss chard. Our new experimental crop this fall is 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 are shrinking each week, and will continue to diminish. The plants themselves are perishing. The last major sweet potato harvest will be this weekend.
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 generous plants who have sustained us since we first made them our companions 10,000 years ago.
Sweet Potatoes
Harvest Continues
We harvested 17 ½ lbs of sweet potatoes this week – in a steady rain. The total harvest is now 181 lbs.
Shares can expect sweet potatoes this week. We finished harvesting one of the Old North beds. We have four more beds to harvest.
The Old North beds are all regeneration plants; that is, plants sprouted from roots and missed fruit from last year. Many were coming up in the north beds, so we collected regeneration plants from other beds and transplanted them to there. The fruits from the first Old North were beautiful, and free of all blemishes. Hopefully, those in the remaining beds will be as good.
Sweet potatoes are by far the most labor-intensive crop to harvest, surpassing even creating new beds in 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 close to that It all depends on the yield from the remaining four beds, which are the largest on the farm.
Some recently harvested SPs may be a bit rugged in appearance now, with clefts and splits. due to excessive moisture and ground-dwelling fauna, most likely grubs, and beetles. 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. 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.
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
Friendship Farms & Fare reaffirms, restores, and advances agrarian ideals to reestablish a sustainable culture
Ecology Florida advances the harmonious integration of healthy natural, cultural, and economic ecologies to regenerate a resilient world
