I checked the weather Tuesday evening and saw that the first frost was scheduled for that night. I shouldn’t have been surprised, but with the growing season stretching on for two extra weeks, I let down my guard. Of course, that meant that moments after I checked the weather, I was jogging out to the garden, muttering at myself, to cover anything that shouldn’t be frozen. I pulled row cover over the remaining squash and spread the recently sown winter rye with black plastic.

That hardy cover crop will continue growing until I tarp it in the spring, but it needs a healthy head start in the fall before frost (whoops). Hopefully, the same plastic sheets I will use to kill the rye in a few months will help it germinate now; I’ll only leave it on for a couple days, perhaps pulling it up occasionally to let the seeds (and later, seedlings) breath and get some sunshine while the sun’s up. In the spring, the tarps stay on for at least a month to smother the “green manure” and any weeds.

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Tomorrow should be a beautiful, sunny day, if a bit chilly, and I plan to be set up at the New Market Farmer’s Market! I will have butternut squash, sweet potatoes, garlic, hot and fire salt, and perhaps some collards and kale. This might be my last market for the season, so make sure to come out and say hello! But since I missed most of October for varying reasons (vacation, weather, etc.), I might set up again next week or the following Friday if the weather is nice.

Update:

I found out right after posting this that the New Market Farmer’s Market has once again been cancelled for tomorrow. So sorry for the inconvenience! I will let you know here and on Facebook when I will be attending my final market for the season, so keep your eyes open. In the meantime, please contact me if you would like to arrange an on-farm or in-town pickup of veggies or handmade items: butternut squash, sweet potatoes, garlic hot and fire salt, collards, kale, dish cloths, scrubbies, skillet handle covers, Harry Potter scarf bookmarks, mug cozies, and produce/gift bags.

Well, sun does not appear to be in the forecast for tomorrow. In fact, we have a 90 percent chance of rain and high winds. The farmer’s market is still scheduled for tomorrow afternoon, but you’ll want to keep an eye on the Facebook page in case of a weather-related closure. As always, even if we’re not at the market tomorrow, you can contact me for on-farm pickup – I might even head into Harrisonburg Saturday, if meeting up in town would be more convenient.

I still have lots of garlic, a few sweet potatoes (fingerling and small to medium sizes), fire salt, hot salt, and hand-knit/crocheted items. And there are a few last jalapenos hanging on the plants! The collards and kale are still a bit small yet, and the squash needs to cure so it’s good and sweet and stores through the winter. Maybe this promised rain will give the greens a nice growth spurt!

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I’m putting the garden to bed a little at a time. Now that the sweet potatoes are all up, I can rake out that bed and seed it with a cover crop of winter rye. I finally pulled out the tomato vines as well, though I’ve left the massive marigold plants for now; they’re just too pretty to uproot yet.

The weather has turned cool, darkness falls sooner every evening, and I suddenly find myself fighting of the urge to hibernate. I try to embrace the slower months, give myself grace when I wake up late every morning because the sun wakes up late, too. But not yet. The harvest isn’t all in yet: there are still sweet potatoes to dig, squash to cut off the vine, beds to sow with winter rye and cover with mulch. The first frost has kindly waited (so far) for me to finish these tasks this year.

The sweet potatoes I dug two weeks ago have been curing in a spare bedroom, and my experimental bed of brassicas appears to be producing some collards and kale. Although I’d hoped to harvest squash last week, the heirloom orange butternuts I planted in late spring are taking their sweet time ripening. Soon.

Unfortunately, the New Market Farmer’s Market has been cancelled this week due to low vendor count. If you would like sweet potatoes, garlic, hot or fire salt, or any of my handmade items, please send me an email, and we can arrange a time for on-farm pickup. We are planning to be at the market next week, October 29, so pray for sunshine and come out to shop! In addition to the list above, I hope to finally have some of those beautiful butternut squash for you and maybe collards and kale.

And if you’re wondering where I disappeared to last week, we headed to the Outer Banks for a few days of wild ponies, exploring, relaxing, and visiting with extended family before attending the beautiful wedding of one of Paul’s cousins (outdoors and fully vaccinated! 🙂 ).

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