From the Farmer’s Mouth
Planting for fall is really getting going out here on the farm. The winter garden planting is one of my favorite times of the year. I love the removing of the worn out summer crops and planting all the leafy greens that will nourish us throughout the colder months. All the planting renews my spirit and inspires thoughts of chilly fall days and blustery winter nights. By the time we start planting all the lettuce, kale, broccoli, and cabbage I am ready for a change. I have to admit I am really tired of picking cucumbers. I long for the cool weather and the chance to bunch Kale again.
So you’ll know what you have to look forward to in your Fall and Winter share boxes, here is a brief list of what I have planned to plant:
- Kale-Dinosaur and Frilly leaf types
- Cabbage-Red, Smooth Green, and Winkled Green (Savoy)
- Kohlrabi-classic green type
- Carrots-if the weeds don’t kill me
- Beets-round red, Cylindra red, and 3 Root grex
- Potatoes-russet, red, yellow Finn, and fingerling
- Winter squash-butternut, and blue ballet,
- Pumpkins-the awesome winter luxury variety
- Lettuce-red leaf, green, butter, red butter and more
- Turnips-white Japanese Tokyo and maybe purple top
- Radishes-French breakfast and watermelon diakon
- Broccoli-the winter classic
- Cauliflower-both white and the green romanesco
These are just the highlights! I told you I like the Fall/Winter garden! It is hard to believe it is September already and it is even harder to believe that one day in the near future it is going to be much cooler and that the days will start to be really short. When that happens, the winter crops will be at their peak and we will all be happily eating them in the comfort of our homes surrounded by our families.
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Marlin Perkins has nothing on me and that is all I have to say about that. For those of you who do not remember Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom, Marlin Perkins was the host. The good old Wild Kingdom was something I had to endure before The Walt Disney show would come on the TV on Sunday nights during primetime. Okay, so I am dating myself. I was sitting in front of the good old black and white TV in feetsy PJs waiting for the old dude in the safari shirt to quit talking so I could get on with some serious TV watching before my busy school week once again took over. Now just to be clear, Marlin was the host, but Jim was the guy who really did all the work and put himself in danger wrestling crocs, and tranquilizing rhinos, and holding onto anacondas. I am not sure what qualified Marlin to be the host, but whatever it was he must have been one tough dude if Jim had to do all the stuff that imperiled his life.
Back to my thesis: Marlin has got nothing on me. It is now late summer and that means I am working hell bent for leather to get all the fall crops planted. To get the crops planted I have to clear out the crop residue from the previous crop and prepare the soil. Preparing the soil involves the tractors and that results in all sorts of soil churning which results in all sorts of varmints running about and me wishing I could crush them under the tires (I am talking mice and gophers not cute bunnies, you know things that anybody would want to crush if they were eating your food). I am really not a psychopath, but these little guys drive me nuts and besides I don’t really ever get the crush them. I just want to, and anyway the move way too fast for the tractor to catch.
They don’t move too fast for a hawk, though. This is the Mutual of Omaha part. I am tilling the soil and 10 feet in front of me is a mouse the size of a rat running for all he is worth. That is until a hawk comes in out of nowhere and picks him up so fast I wasn’t sure if the hawk missed, but there was no mouse anymore so I surmised that the hawk did not miss. This sort of thing went on for an hour. I was tilling and the hawk was sitting the walnut tree and whenever I scared something out, the hawk would swoop in and remove it. You have got to love nature!
February 02 2010 03:36 pm