Week 10 CSA Baskets and Garden Update

Here we are at the final week of our regular CSA season. This weeks baskets included: cabbage, peppers (3 types), tomatillos, onions (2 types), garlic, green and purple beans, zucchini, beets with greens, eggplant, spinach, celery, tomatoes (3 types), basil, sage, tarragon, chives, carrots (red, purple, and round), cucumbers, Swiss chard, and a bouquet of zinnias and sunflowers. Above is the contents of a large share basket and below are some close-ups.

Garden Update

As of now the gardens are very happy. It is supposed to get down to 38 degrees on Monday. That would make a lot of them not very happy. The green house plastic is out and were are covering the eggplant and peppers when it gets too cold. They become unhappy even before freezing temp so we keep them warm with their very own little blanket. Come Monday we will be covering many more things. Usually it freezes once or twice then we have another stretch of time before it freezes again. We just have to get through that first frost. Below left is covered
Poblano peppers, ans below right is covered eggplant.

The green house looks pretty much like a tomato jungle! We also have English cucumbers and bell peppers growing in the green house. Soon I will be transplanting basil. I'm also going to transplant some of the eggplants into the green house and see how they do.

Inside the house I have starts of cabbage broccoli and cauliflower that I started in early August. They will be planted in the new low tunnels that should be here any day. They prefer the cooler weather. When the temps get colder than they like we will roll the plastic down a give them their own mini greenhouse. We also have another round of lettuce that is coming up. The kale is leafing out in the center again as well. The flea beetles are shrinking in population and I think we are going to be able to have kale again. They too prefer the cooler temps.

Our goal is to have a fall and spring season to go with our summer season. We do have some customers that are going to keep getting baskets even though the summer season is over and pay for them individually (an unofficial fall season). We can't put a set amount of weeks on it because it is our first time growing with a green house  and low tunnels in the fall.. Next year we should have it all figured out for an official fall and spring season. If you are interested in participating in our 'unofficial" fall season then contact me here. The produce is very much "official". The only thing that makes it "unofficial" is that you would be paying weekly instead of for the entire season at once because of the stated reason above. We don't want to charge for a eight week season to find out we can't go that long. So we are doing it week by week. 

We want  the green house to go through the entire winter. We are insulating the tin. We used double wall poly ( this is the clear part if the green house) so that is already insulated and we will be adding a thermal mass to collect and store the heat during the day to be released at night. We also built it short. The peak of the roof is only 10 feet high. This means a lot less space to heat. As we watch how all these measures affect the temps in the green house we will determine what other measures we need to take to keep it heated through the winter. So excited about this!

Thank you to all our CSA members for your support and involvement in our first CSA season!

Jaci