One of the themes of fall is finishing things up. Last week we planted our garlic beds for next year and for the next week we’ll be pulling out any crop debris, pulling up any weeds and most significantly, covering the soil.
Separating garlic cloves
We cover the soil to keep the beds moist so that the biology can remain active and continue to eat the organic matter that we put on the beds. The covering of the soil also helps prevent any wind erosion that happens in the winter. This year we are covering the soil in multiple ways. Cover cropping is the best, but our season to seed that is over now because they will no longer germinate. Our other tactics include leaving any straw used for various crops on the beds, using the green tops from our winter storage crops to cover the beds (carrot tops, parsnip tops…) and putting down our unfinished compost.
Homemade compost
Time to spread it on the field
Compost takes time to make and we are just breaking into our first piles we made last year and from this spring. We don’t turn our piles, so our compost takes some more time to finish, which is partly why we are putting them out into the fields. The stirring around gives the microbes breaking it down an activity boost. Digging into our first piles it was amazing to see how much it had transformed. The green and brown material had nearly turned into compost already. Compost is a critical component to any organic garden and being able to make our own just feels right as we cycle it back again into our beds.
Kale, swiss chard, mȃche (still germinating) and lush spinach
Tunnel full of greens
POP UP MARKET
Our first winter market in the town hall can’t come soon enough, we have vegetables that are ready to be harvested now. We are thankful to Carol for hosting a pop up farm market at Kick Ash in Ellison Bay this Saturday from 10:00am - 2:00pm. Enjoy some of our fresh spinach, lettuce heads, onions, carrots, beets, rutabagas, watermelon radishes, leeks, garlic, salad turnip, salad radishes and kohlrabi. And don't forget to indulge in some granola and coffee too. We hope to see you there!