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.
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.
Sam’s working on improving the orchard fencing. Too many deer are getting in there.
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.
I’m picking green beans almost daily in the main garden. Also sowed some fall seeds in empty spots.
The fava bean area freed up, so we put up a pea trellis there. Also planted cilantro, broccoli rabe, and spinach in that 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!
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.