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2021 Extended Season Week 25 of 32

Writer's picture: Victoria & Randy RogowskiVictoria & Randy Rogowski

Happy Extended Season! With the temperatures last week, it's very hard to believe that we're more than halfway through October. This week is supposed to be more seasonable, but there is still no threat of frost in sight. Check out how healthy everything looks! We can't believe that those greenhouse tomatoes were seeded 10 months ago.


This week we have 85 members to feed, and the reduction in shares means that we have a bit more flexibility in the types of vegetables that we are able to provide. We only have to have 85 of a particular item in order to include it in that week's offerings. We bumped up the number a bit with our Mini Harvest Time Subscription for the next 2 weeks because we know we'll have a little more wiggle room than we will as the season really starts to wind down. We are super excited about the box this week and think we'll all draw some fresh inspiration from it. Keep those posts in our Facebook group coming!

 

This past week, we picked up the rest of our winter squash. We receive a lot of questions about how we avoid pest damage to our crops, and the truth is, we don't! When it comes to transplant destruction, most of the time we plant enough extras to replace the ones that are eaten, but sometimes we have to take a loss. This week, we found that almost all of the spaghetti squash we went to harvest had been ransacked by turkeys. We expected to fill the better portion of a large bin, but that didn't happen. We planted a lot of our melons, pumpkins, and winter squash on a family piece of property in Monroe this year, and it doesn't have deer fencing around it. A lot of our melon plants were overtaken by deer, but we were still grateful to have had a good harvest.


Regardless, Randy planted more winter squash this year, and we still have a TON. Spaghetti squash is on deck for you this week.


 

Another big project we put a check mark next to was harvesting all of our potatoes. Randy used his potato digger to unearth them, and the crew packed them into crates. They're currently being stored in our greenhouse, where it's warm and dry. And, you guessed it... this week you're getting potatoes! Commercially-grown potatoes are "cured" to extend their shelf life, and the way you do that is to keep them at a steady 85 degrees for 3 weeks. We are neither equipped, nor have the desire, to cure our potatoes (it seems an unnecessary use of resources when we don't grow year-round anyway), but they will last for the next couple of months anyway.



 

Yet another large project is underway, and that's clean-up for the season.

(If you came to the bean harvesting, you might recognize this angle. Just beyond Tyler is the bean plot.)

One of the ways we do that is to rip up the drip irrigation lines from all of the raised beds. To tell you the truth, this is kind of a wasteful product. It consists of a ton of plastic that isn't reusable beyond one season. But it's a complete trade-off. If we were to install above ground reusable sprinklers, it wouldn't be beneficial for certain crops. If you water above ground, you risk spreading foliar diseases through water, so you would end up with a ton of disease spreading by way of leaves across your crops. Watering underground at the root system reduces that risk immensely. Because we also plant on a 3-year crop rotation, we also wouldn't be able to move any permanent above-ground irrigation depending on our planting map.


The good news is that all of the plastic we plant on is now biodegradable, except for the reflective plastic that we plant our onion crops on. This not only makes for a much easier cleanup, but is much more environmentally friendly. We wish we had a solution for the drip tape, but there are always advances being made in the agriculture industry.

 

Just a reminder that if you have an Extended Season share, but you've been receiving a delivery, this week we revert back to pickups for the remaining 8 weeks. See you at the store! And feel free to keep your reusable tote from the deliveries.

 

Last week the weather was so beautiful that we had to take the opportunity to snap a few extra photos.


(Rye is already coming up! Remember when we said this was a fast-growing cover crop?)


Have a great week, everyone!

 

In Your Share (In approximate order from shortest to longest shelf life)

Small:

  • 1 bunch of choy sum

  • 1 bunch of radishes

  • 1/2 lb. of beans

  • 1/2 lb. of leeks

  • 1 lb. of potatoes

  • 1 spaghetti squash

Large:

  • 1 bunch of choy sum

  • 1 bunch of radishes

  • 1/2 lb. of salad mix

  • 1/2 lb. of beans

  • 1 lb. of leeks

  • 2 lbs. of potatoes

  • 1 spaghetti squash

Caring For Your Share:

  • Store beans in a plastic bag in the fridge. Wash and blot dry when ready to use.

  • Store choy sum in a plastic bag in the crisper drawer of your fridge. Or, trim the ends and store it in a glass of water, like a bouquet. Wash when ready to use (within the week).

  • Store leeks in a plastic bag in the fridge. Wash when ready to use.

  • Store potatoes in a mesh bag in a cool, dark place such as a cabinet or pantry, and ensure that they get plenty of air flow. Do not wash until ready to use, but wipe away dense soil, if any. Keep away from onions.

  • Remove the greens from the radishes and store them in separate plastic bags. Wash and eat the greens within a few days; the roots will keep for a couple of weeks if stored properly.

  • Keep salad mix in the bag in the fridge. Wash and spin out when ready to use (within the week).

  • Store in a cool, dark place such as a pantry, cabinet, or cellar where it will get air flow.


LGF Cooking Club (The Library of Resources is filled with TONS of ideas about all of these veggies.


You can do anything with choy sum that you would do with bok choy!)


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