The first freeze of the season hit us on Wednesday and Thursday nights, and while the night sky was clear and resplendent with beautiful stars, the cold marked the end of the growing season for many of our vegetables and flowers in the raised beds.
We always know this night will come each fall, but we don’t know when. It meant hustling the team hard to pull in every last pepper and dahlia to get them into the barn in time. Even though we were down more than a few team members due to illness, everyone stepped up and came through. Not only did we deal with the cold and wind, but the heat as well: the temperature differential between outdoors and working inside the High Tunnel was probably 30 degrees or more.
It was another instance of everyone working together and adjusting to different temperatures, responsibilities and tasks. We applaud the team for their flexibility and hard work!
We’ll now turn our attention to putting the gardens to bed: digging up the dahlia tubers to store for the winter and plant again next spring, and adding compost into the beds to replenish lost nutrients, among many other tasks.
We’ll try to keep things growing in the High Tunnel as long as we can.
We’ll think about what worked well this year and where we might do better.
We’ll remain very grateful for the ability to grow hydroponic greens in the Greenhouse all winter.
And we’ll take delight in the brisk mornings, put the kettle on for tea and start thinking about all the new things we will grow next season…
With gratitude and appreciation,
Allison Schumacher
Farm Manager