Market Season Winding Down

Today we were at 3 markets, just as it has been the last 20 weeks or so.  We only have one more week of that schedule, and then we’ll be down to 1 market/week - Saturday mornings in Auburn.  The markets went well - about 50% better than last week.  

The crops are still plentiful, the offering diverse.  I felt like the grocery store this morning - beets, carrots, radishes, turnips, spring mix, arugula, celery, potatoes, winter squash, peppers, eggplant, tomatoes, strawberries.  That’s what we had at the booth this morning.

We are finishing some projects on the farm.  Carrots are weeded, thinned, and ready to…grow some more.  We have a couple 200ft beds that we’re ready to harvest from now.  Our friend Matt, at Pyramid Farms, is the Carrot King.  While I haven’t personally seen nor tasted his, I understand he has a pretty solid reputation at the Chico Farmers’ Market in the winter - for his carrots.  OF course, he’ll never tell me the variety - that’s okay.  Anyway, he’s pretty particular about when he starts to harvest his carrots.  We’re a little colder up here in the foothills, so I feel good about digging them now.  And, they are delicious - all sweet, no hint of bitter.  I can’t wait till it frosts so they are even yummier.  All told, it’s a small patch - 8 beds of 200ft (4 rows/bed).  they look great.  

Next project - plant all the garlic.  That will be a Monday/Tuesday thing, and we’ll use the transplanter with the tractor.  We’re a couple weeks later than I hoped, but well within the acceptable range of Garlic planting times for our area.  We’ll plant 200lbs this fall.

After that -weeding and thinning some fall greens, turnips, radishes.

And then…weeding the strawberry patch.  It’s a mess of organic matter.   That will take a while.  We have our help for one more week, and then they’re gone.  So, we’ll have to utilize them to the fullest.

Have a nice weekend.

Andrew