farm share

This post is a little bit late, but better late than never I guess. This past week I was feeling a bit tired. I would look around myself, take note of all the things I needed to do, then once Sorrel would fall asleep on me, all motivation would fly out the window. I just didn’t feel like getting up. So I didn’t. I picked up some long neglected knitting projects instead…and just sat. I have a hard time blogging without pictures, and where I was sitting there was no camera either, so no blog posting happened, but that’s okay. I haven’t been outside much either. It has gotten pretty chilly up here, and to go outside means that I need to bundle up my little guy…but sitting inside just seemed so much easier. I really do want to capture the garden’s weekly process/progress as much as I can…so I can remember things for following years. So one afternoon, I handed off Sorrel to Daddy, grabbed my camera and took a walk outside through the gardens all by myself.

From the three rows of winter squash we planted this season we are harvesting soooo many. Between the butternuts, acorns, and delicatas we’ve got well over a hundred squashes out there. I’ve started freezing some. Whenever we bake squash for dinner, I throw in an extra one to freeze. Apparently you cannot can pureed squash. Canning is only acceptable if it is cubed, but that’s more work, so for now we freeze, eat, store and sell.

When we planted our cabbage, we chose a variety specifically good for making sauerkraut. They are big and beautiful…a few are ready for picking and then we will go back to making a few more crocks of kraut. Luckily, cabbage stores well for a bit too.

Who knows what’s going on with the tomatoes?! That’s both an honest question and a sly remark. Sigh. At least we made it this far in the season with them. We have also learned a lot about what we envision doing differently for next year. Jason swears they have blight, but I have no idea if that’s fact or fear. Ever since the big blight outbreak a couple of years ago I think there’s a high paranoia, but it could be for all I know. Regardless, we are mere days/weeks from our first frost, so the best thing we can do would be to pick what is still good out there and make some more tomato sauce and call it a day.

Overall the garden looks like a fall garden. Many things are starting to die back preparing for a long winter’s rest, while cold weather crops are still going strong. Someone mentioned recently not knowing how to know when a winter squash is ready to be picked. Once the leaves start to die back is a good sign, however, you can also let them sit out in the garden for up to a month after the leaves have totally died back to cure. That way they will store longer. Apparently, winter squash can withstand a light frost as well. It will make it taste sweeter, but then it will not be able to store for very long.

We started harvesting spinach and lettuce mix again. Yesterday we planted our winter density romaine head lettuce seedlings in our third raised bed. We decided to hold off on the mustard greens for now and get the romaine in instead. I would really love to have about 15 covered raised beds or so along with a large plot of open garden space. Someday…

Pumpkins and birdhouse gourds are doing well. Kayla actually grew her own pumpkin patch and has just about as many pumpkins in her patch as we do. The other day she took Lake out and helped him pick out which pumpkin he wanted for his Halloween jack-o-lantern. I can’t believe it is fall already. And I really can’t believe that it is the end of September. I always feel like when I am pregnant/have a baby I miss out on a large portion of a season. It feels like it was just the beginning of summer yesterday!