To update you all on last week's flooding situation...after eight inches of rain in fewer days than that, yes, most of the farm was underwater. No, most plants definitely do not appreciate that much water. By last Friday, most of our crops were at a tipping point, where even just a little more water might have meant some pretty catastrophic crop losses. With more rain forecast for the weekend, I spent most of Saturday at the Midtown market holding my breath and trying not to look at the clouds in the sky.
Hallelujah, it only sprinkled a bit. The cherry tomatoes and a few rows of fall beans that were about ready to produce did not survive. Limited quantities of arugula this week: by last weekend much of it looked sort of half-suffocated, but should recover nicely - and if it doesn't, there's another planting growing along right behind it. Our beets and carrots were still at a tiny seedling stage, which drowned or washed out, and need to be re-planted. We were unfortunately already running a little late with these thanks to an excessively wet August. Replanting in mid-September may mean no beets or carrots until December, but on the bright side I expect that means we won't run out of beets and carrots in February, as usually happens :)
Our sweet potato crop was a good one this summer, and they are nicely cured, sweetened up, and ready for your table...just a few red-skinned white potatoes left if you prefer; I expect they'll be gone before the end of the week. The heat-loving peppers, eggplant, basil and okra slow down some as the temperatures cool, but we are starting to get a wider array of greens coming in. I like to thickly over-seed beds of greens. Most then require some time to be vigorously thinned, but that means we get a sneak preview of tender smaller greens weeks before we start harvesting in full of off the mature plantings. Expect a rotating cast of characters in the greens department over the next few weeks as we thin and you eat our way through different beds of leafy greens - lots of tender young babies!
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