Update from the Gardens: September 15, 2012

Greetings from the Gardens,

The week was busier than usual, but thanks to a good reason.  Ben’s friend and fellow farmer, Mike,  joined us for 3 days from southern Illinois.  Mike grows mushrooms, hops ,veggies, pigs, chickens, goats, and ???.   During that time they finished up Hoop House 2 by putting on the roll up sides.  What perfect timing. Mike fell in love the the Allis G and the basket weeder.   As air temps go down and day light hours shorten,  ripening and growing slow down.   So hopefully, we’ll keep tomatoes, peppers, and the eggplant going a while longer.  We’ve started some lettuce seeds to go in as we begin taking out some rows.  We’re certainly not planning to heat either HH until spring seedlings are vulnerable.  We’re going to plant some “winter density” romaine heads, some spinach and some carrots for spring.  We’d like to have enough to begin the u-pick season and CSA a couple weeks earlier to take advantage of the asparagus harvest.  We’ll see.

Now is a great time to bring interested friends to the gardens for a trial pick.  By having them pick alongside you (for $25.00) they get to experience the whole process and see that, yes, it does take time to do a good pick.

Notice that we’ve added some green onions, potatoes, and more winter squash to the pick list.  Squash and potatoes will be in the pack shed.  Another row of beans is available, so we’ve increased the quantity for those of you that would like to freeze some.

Our honey is available in the garage on the shelf by the refrigerator.  Same system as the eggs.   Make change in the jar.  We have several sizes available:

Quarts                                                $20.00

1# plastic squeezers or glass jars        $7.00

8 ounce trial “cuties”                             $4.00

This year’s harvest was larger than last but it won’t last forever.  We’ll have honey available as long until  it runs out.

One would think that this would be a quiet time in the gardens…but wrong.  With harvesting the big ol’ melons and squash and potatoes,  splitting rhubarb, moving oregano from G1 to the herb garden, planting more lettuces and spinach for you die-hard pickers,  cleaning up the gardens, prepping the ground and planting cover crops, we still feel always behind.  But no two days are the same and we love the challenges.

Most of the recipes that have been sent out this summer are now archived on our new and improved website, thanks to fellow picker Angela Wisch.  Check it out at www.harrisonmarketgardens.com  (same website, slightly different format).

If anyone knows of a source for another used golf cart, please keep us in mind as we find they are real workhorses during the planting and harvesting seasons.

Keep coming out as there is still lots of growing and harvesting going on.  The sweet potatoes should start next week and the pumpkins are looking good.

We enjoy your weekly or biweekly visits even though sometimes we only see you from afar or from the seat of the tractor.

From the gardens,

Jill, Bill, and Ben