Dear KCSA community,
We had some of my favorite weather over the weekend—cool, dry and sunny. It might dip low enough to damage the basil again tonight. A projected low of 39F in Phoenixville could be a 31F at the farm, such is our micro climate in the French Creek valley. We had a touch of frost this morning. Basil plants don’t like those close-to-freezing temperatures.
Hopefully, the light frost will be a shock to the system for the tomato plants. Perhaps, we’ll see those green tomatoes ripen in the warmer weather this week? It’s been a strange run out to fall but regardless, this weekend has been a wee winter warning: the first hard frost is just around the corner!
WHAT'S IN THE SHARES THIS WEEK!
LETTUCE, TURNIPS, CILANTRO/DILL SWISS CHARD/KALE, HERBS, BOK CHOY, ZUCCHINI, GARLIC, EGGPLANT, ONIONS, PEPPERS, TOMATOES, & BUTTERNUT SQUASH
U-PICK:
CHERRY TOMATOES, HOT PEPPERS, SHISHITO PEPPERS, TOMATILLOS, GROUND CHERRIES, FLOWERS, HERBS, & BASIL.
U-pick is almost done. We’ll be systematically turning the beds and sowing winter cover crop over the next few weeks. This week the blackberries will be on the share. There is a limited number of blackberries and, as with every year, they are really, really late coming in. I just don’t think the variety is meant for our climate. Anyway, please stick to the limits; hunt high and low; and, successful u-picking is subject to availability!
This will be the last week of garlic on the share. We’ve siphoned off what we need to plant for 2021. All of next year’s garlic will be grown from our seed stock...yup, biodynamic!
The 5-week wait for lettuce is over! We should have a good lettuce run out through fall. Most varieties are quite cold hardy and less susceptible to bolting at this time of year, plus we have salad mix as a back-up.
Our Hakurei turnips are also ready for bunching and will be on the share this week. Delicious.
Cheers, Andrew
