I noticed the carrot tops looked significantly less bushy in the hoophouse bed. Sure enough, something had munched them down. And sampled some spinach and arugula as well. Rabbit or porcupine? Bigger than a vole, smaller than a deer. Possibly nocturnal.
This loss caused a reaction. First I harvested the carrots. A modest amount of short roots that will keep in the fridge for awhile.
Then Sam worked to put the hoophouse covers back on. Front, back, and sides. And semi-secured the edges to avoid more marauding pests. More work is needed to deter the voles that wrecked (ate) most of last winter’s greens.
I cleaned up the hoophouse today in anticipation of very cold temperatures tonight. Harvested some escarole and carrots. A white mold had eaten the tops of many carrots – maybe it cam in with the hay mulch? The roots seemed fine though. I’ll make a carrot soup and some escarole and beans.
I pulled several Red Kuri squash down from the heights of their trellis along the chicken run. Their color is amazing.
Then I walked to the community garden and pulled some great big Napoli carrots. Back at home, I harvested some stunted carrots from under the corner trellis. It’s not a very good place to plant things – too much shade during peak summer growing season. Only the kale has really done well under there.
Is it still mid-August? A lot has happened. We harvested the fava beans on August 11. Had a big party, the third annual, to shuck the beans. I have three small freezer bags of leftovers, which is good. I didn’t take any pictures, unfortunately.
We have picked over 20 pounds of blueberries, all in the orchard except for two containers harvested atop Schoodic. I know that should be quarts, next year I’ll switch to the more typical measurement.
Blueberries in orchard
We are still waiting for the Reliance peaches to ripen. Last year they were all taken, probably by squirrels. This year we took more precautions (netting around the trunk). Sam propped up the heavy branches. They have great color, but are still quite hard.
Peach tree with branches propped
Reliance peaches ripening
Sam’s working on improving the orchard fencing. Too many deer are getting in there.
Orchard fence improvements
He also added two more raised beds in the hoophouse. Over the next few days I’ll plant some fall and winter greens in them. The peppers and eggplants in the older beds are growing but not exuberantly, but the basil in there is doing great. We had to protect those beds from deer who came to munch one variety of pepper when we opened the roof to the sun and rain.
Hoophouse with two new raised beds
I’m picking green beans almost daily in the main garden. Also sowed some fall seeds in empty spots.
Seedling carrots
Newly planted lettuces framed by Bianca’s white runner bean
The fava bean area freed up, so we put up a pea trellis there. Also planted cilantro, broccoli rabe, and spinach in that area.
Newly planted fava bean area
Harvesting lots of food: beets, cucumbers, a few ripe tomatoes, lettuce, escarole, radicchio, carrots, costata romanesca zucchini, kale, chard, dill, artichokes, broccoli, Savoy cabbage, fingerlings, strawberries, blackberries. Coming along: squashes, a few ears of corn, cabbage, soybeans, pattypan squash, lots of tomatoes!
Flower row with garlic bed beyond. Mostly poppies and daisies at this time, but sunflowers coming.
Three sisters row. Corn (a few stalks), squash, green beans. A few volunteer potatoes. Horseradish at one end and comfrey at the other.
Broccoli (Aspabroc and DeCicco). Started under row cover. Vulnerable to porcupines! Saved by electric fence, now harvesting. Some cabbage, I think.
Fava bean row, plus some Dazzling Blue Kale and volunteer wild arugula from last year.
Parsnips, first and second year. Turnips. Beets. And a patch of broccoli rabe bolting. Will replace with some carrots.
Mixed greens row. Chard, radicchio, ruby red orach, Salanova lettuce, escarole, some volunteer dill, baby Turkish rocket, and some room for succession planting.
Soybeans just flowering, fingerling potatoes, carrots. Artichoke at the end of this row and three others.
Tomato row. Plus one marigold at the top.
Fence row – scarlet runner beans (not shown), rudbeckia perennial, zucchini, patty pan squash, Hopi black sunflowers, Chinese cabbage.
Lettuces under the corner trellis. Also visible – a few cucumbers starting to climb.
The quantities are perfect for us in this version of this recipe. It makes about 10 pints. I’m freezing them in one-cup portions, so we can use whatever we need.
