Changing weather & changing crops

A couple of weeks ago we had a cold spell followed by a couple of days over 100 degrees and it looks like that will be happening again with the last couple days being pretty cool before next week we go back up into the mid-90s.

September is always a time of the year where the weather is not consistent as the seasons are starting to change and there is less sunlight every day.

Going from seeing all the summer crops growing and ripening rapidly to having them slow down enough that it is visible is a big change.

At the same time all the fall crops are enjoying the cooler weather and growing quick when not having to put their energy into staying alive when it gets hot.

The cucumbers and summer squash are growing slower with the cooler temperatures and shorter days along with the plants having gone through the stress of the heatwave in July.

One summer crop that seems to still be producing a lot is the Sungold cherry tomatoes which is exciting to see so many ripe and green fruit on the plants. The cooler weather in August led them to set lots more fruit and all of those are ripening now and over the next few weeks.

Now that the little gem lettuces have started to size up and we got a small harvest for last weekend we should have lots more this week.

Additionally coming soon we will also have some head lettuce. The first couple of plantings only contain varieties that can handle the stress from the heat well but now we’ve planted lots of the other varieties.

Lots of the other fall crops are starting to size up and hopefully we will begin to be able to harvest them in the coming weeks. The Red Russian Kale is looking really nice and is close to the size of the leaves that we want before we begin to harvest them.

There is also some arugula that was direct seeded which is growing really well and only grows quicker the more leaves it has which means we will harvest it sooner.

We went through the winter squash this past week and cut all the ripe squash off the vines and have left them sitting in the field for a few days to cure. Now we will box them up and bring them in the barn to store along with beginning to take them to market this weekend.

Until we harvest anything we won’t know how this year’s winter squash crop is but from what we’ve seen so far the squash is larger on average this year than last.