Hiding under a sea of vines our sweet potatoes have been growing and they are now ready to harvest and sell after a few taste tests!

Sweet potatoes were not on our crop plan to grow this year but we were very fortunate Eatwell Farm had a few thousand extras that we were able to get since we had some space to plant them.

Some people confuse sweet potatoes and yams because sweet potatoes are sometimes identified incorrectly in stores as yams but you most likely have not eaten a yam. Yams have a rough skin that is similar to the bark on a tree and like a regular potato in having dry and starchy flesh.

Sweet potatoes have a softer flesh when cooked and as their name suggests a sweet flavor. The variety we are growing is Vermilion and our favorite way to cook them is just roasting whole with some olive oil.

There is a lot of variance in the size of the sweet potatoes we have harvested so far which is great for the different uses.

In addition to the sweet potatoes and winter squash at markets we will continue to have all of our delicious fall veggies along with a few summer crops. Our lettuces are looking great and we are consistently planting more of them so that we can have them all winter long at market.

We transplanted lettuce and broccoli this week along with a large amount of direct seeded crops. It included our third succession of carrots just as our first planting is beginning to size up. We also seeded beets, turnips, radishes, spinach, bok choy and arugula.

Rapidly coming to a close is our tomato season with fewer and fewer ripening each week. There are still a number of green tomatoes on the plants but it is taking way longer for them to ripen in the shorter days and cooler temps.

After Friday we may be reaching the end of temperatures in the 90s as it is forecasted to be in the 80s next week and cooling down after that. At night the temperatures will still be above 50 degrees which is the crucial temperature for basil.

Once it drops below 50, basil will start to get damage on its leaves and not last long after being harvested so if you want to make a last batch of pesto to each fresh or freeze come grab a few bunches at any of our markets in the next two weeks.

We’ll have a very limited amount of cucumbers for the next two week as the season winds down for them while the eggplant will go for a little bit longer.