2009 Season, Week Sixteen

September 5, 2009

This week's harvest:

Tomatoes

Sweet peppers

Hot peppers

Okra

Basil

Onions

Garlic

Zucchini or eggplant

Lettuce

Galia melons

This week's farm news:

We harvested the butternut squash crop this week. We didn't take an exact count, but we estimate over 1,500 beautiful squashes! There's even some more still in the field on vines that crept well out of the squash patch & are hiding off in the peanuts & tomatoes, so we'll have to get them later! Fall really must be approaching as the squash are now in the barn & we've begun eating butternut squash porridge for our breakfast. Yummy!

Eric & the kids sowed a bunch more cover crops this week. They planted a wild medley of leftover seeds from this season -- peas, beans, beets, corn, cilantro, etc.; combined with more traditional cover crops -- crimson clover, wheat, & buckwheat. With that mixture we're probably certain to attract pesky deer into the garden! Our family milk cow, Darla, had her calf this week. During evening chores Eric noticed she was in labor & in the course of less than one hour he got to witness the entire event. The very healthy calf was up and nursing almost immediately! Eric hopes to start milking Darla this week for our family's own fresh milk supply!

Also this week we hosted the Allen County (KY) Master Gardeners Club on our farm for a farm tour.