The winter rye is sprouting, the squash have been brought inside, and it is time for the garden to rest. Although I had hoped to do one last market this season, it just hasn’t worked out, so I think I’ll hunker down for the winter, too. If you need squash, sweet potatoes, or garlic for your holiday feasts, please reach out to arrange a pickup time and place. I also have plenty of handmade items and a few bottles of hot salt for Christmas gifts.
Thank you for supporting Fairydiddle Farm through its second season! Keep an eye on this blog for occasional midwinter updates and what to expect next year.
Happy Friday, friends! Hopefully you have all seen by now that the New Market Farmer’s Market was cancelled for today. Disappointing as this is, the sun is shining today, and I plan to take full advantage of that. I hope you can, too!
In fact, this whole week has been wonderfully warm and sunny, and I spent almost all of Tuesday out in the garden. The last of the squash has finally been harvested and now sits curing in the sun on my front porch. I also got several dozen cloves of garlic in the ground and sowed winter rye in the rest of that bed.
This means that with the exception of the winter-hardy brassicas (collards, kale, and possibly broccoli), the garden has been fully harvested and mostly put to bed for winter. Winterizing the garden always feels bittersweet: I am sad that the growing season is over, the night comes sooner, and the weather grows colder. But I’m also ready for a season of rest (though it always feels just as busy, if cozier and filled with tea).
If you would like to purchase some of the beautiful orange butternut squash, sweet potatoes, garlic, collards, or kale, or any of my handmade items, please reach out via email or Facebook to place an order and arrange a pickup time and place.
I checked the weather Tuesday evening and saw that the first frost was scheduled for that night. I shouldn’t have been surprised, but with the growing season stretching on for two extra weeks, I let down my guard. Of course, that meant that moments after I checked the weather, I was jogging out to the garden, muttering at myself, to cover anything that shouldn’t be frozen. I pulled row cover over the remaining squash and spread the recently sown winter rye with black plastic.
That hardy cover crop will continue growing until I tarp it in the spring, but it needs a healthy head start in the fall before frost (whoops). Hopefully, the same plastic sheets I will use to kill the rye in a few months will help it germinate now; I’ll only leave it on for a couple days, perhaps pulling it up occasionally to let the seeds (and later, seedlings) breath and get some sunshine while the sun’s up. In the spring, the tarps stay on for at least a month to smother the “green manure” and any weeds.
Tomorrow should be a beautiful, sunny day, if a bit chilly, and I plan to be set up at the New Market Farmer’s Market! I will have butternut squash, sweet potatoes, garlic, hot and fire salt, and perhaps some collards and kale. This might be my last market for the season, so make sure to come out and say hello! But since I missed most of October for varying reasons (vacation, weather, etc.), I might set up again next week or the following Friday if the weather is nice.
Update:
I found out right after posting this that the New Market Farmer’s Market has once again been cancelled for tomorrow. So sorry for the inconvenience! I will let you know here and on Facebook when I will be attending my final market for the season, so keep your eyes open. In the meantime, please contact me if you would like to arrange an on-farm or in-town pickup of veggies or handmade items: butternut squash, sweet potatoes, garlic hot and fire salt, collards, kale, dish cloths, scrubbies, skillet handle covers, Harry Potter scarf bookmarks, mug cozies, and produce/gift bags.
