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Hi,
Surprisingly, we missed a killing frost last night-the air temperature only got down to 35F at the farm. Yes, there was frost on dark colored roofs and on windshields of vehicles that were parked so they were exposed to the cold night sky. However, only the most tender of plants that were exposed to the super-clear sky and insulated from the warm ground by heavy vegetation were damaged. Right now it looks like we won't have a true killing frost (defined when the air temperature reaches 32F or below) until at least October 10, perhaps even later. This is a bit abnormal for us but has happened before-our average killing frost date here is October 1. By the way, perhaps the reason we missed the frost was because the air mass originated over the north pacific and not the polar regions of Canada.
Since we missed the frost we will have a good supply of green and yellow beans all week and we will also have a small, but steady supply of tomatoes and peppers until the next frost which won't come before October 10, if then.
This will likely be the last week for our pawpaws so if you are interested in tasting this native treat please stop by this week sometime.
Our list of apples we are picking this week now includes, Empire, Jonathan, Jonagold and Redgold. Also, we are still picking Cortland, Spartan, Stark's Jumbo, Hawaii, Snow and Macoun. We are done picking Baron, Gravenstein, Gala, Honecrisp, Wolf River and, of course, all the summer apples. We will soon be picking Red and Golden Delicious and Jonalicious. Next week I will mention the next varieties we will be picking. (Preview: We have real nice crops coming of two of our most popular late apples--Northern Spy and Idared.)
A little bit about the Jonathan apple.
The Jonathan apple was my mother's favorite and is likely the reason why I planted so many of this variety. I firmly believe the Jonathan has more real apple flavor than any other variety. Period. To substantiate this statement it is a fact that Michigan producers pay top price for Jonathan apples-even more than Northern Spy! I think the reason for this is that when you make an apple dish with Jonathans, you need less apples since they are so loaded with flavor. Since we have so many Jonathans, we are selling them by the half bushel at only $7 - which is less than most of our other apple varieties.
This week we will be digging our sweet potatoes, red and Kennebec potatoes and carrots. Next week parsnips will be dug. Also we will continue harvesting our pumpkins and buttercup squash-we are basically done harvesting our acorn, butternut, Heart of Gold and spaghetti squash and have them temporarily stored in the field in four 20 bushel boxes.
Injun Summer This WeeK!
Indian Summer is defined by a spell (one day to 3 weeks) of sunny and warm fall weather that follows a frost. The coming one to two weeks will definitely be Indian Summer even though we didn't have a killing frost-as mentioned earlier there was a frost on roofs and windshields. It looks like the length and intensity of this Indian Summer will be abnormal. Enjoy it!
Nashle,
Tom
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