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Hi,
The growing season at Magicland Farms has officially come to an end. The temperature got down to 29F on Saturday, October 21. As is typical of the first frost, the day turned out sunny and beautiful with an afternoon temperature of 60F. This was one of the latest killing frosts we ever experienced at the farm-the average first frost date is October 1.Good news for all those SunSugar Cherry tomato fans! The tomatoes growing in our high tunnel escaped the frost! While it got cold by Pickerel Lake, there was no killing frost yet.
We are still picking late apples such as Idared, Russet (both Golden and Roxbury), Rome and Splendor and will soon be picking Granny Smith and Fuji.
While we are mostly done harvesting our other winter apple varieties, we still have a good supply of most of them. See our earlier newsletters for more details. This is a good week to stock up on quality squash since we will have a good selection of acorn, butternut and Heart of Gold squash and are selling them for $10 a bushel. If you place them anyplace in your home, even your kitchen, they should keep to at least Thanksgiving. (They will keep better in your kitchen than if placed where the temperature is below 45F, such as in an unheated garage in November.) It is a good idea, however, to separate the squash and lay them out rather than keep them in a basket or bag. This also lets you keep an eye on them If you see a bad spot develop, cut the bad spot out and eat the squash.
While we have finished selling our pawpaw fruit, we have pawpaw seeds available for 50 cents each, 10% discount for quantities over 20. We also have hardy seed pecans available for the same price. These pecans came from our own trees whose parents originated growing along the Mississippi river in Wisconsin. It is sad, but I've learned that the original wild pecan trees in Wisconsin are now dead because of the 1993 flood. While I have no doubt there are a few alive, it is likely their number are few. Both pawpaw and pecan seeds come with a instruction sheet I have written on how to start the trees growing. We also will soon have shellbark hickory seed nuts available for the same price.
Despite the fact we picked a wagon load of pumpkins yesterday, our pumpkin patch is thinning out rapidly. However, we still have a nice selection. We also added a bargain corner where the pumpkins are only a buck each!
Last week I mentioned about my daughters new venture as they started the Magicland Corner Bakery. They will be selling this week apple pie pastries, pumpkin muffins, double chocolate cupcakes and other delicious fall-flavored desserts. The apple pie pastries were frozen right after cooling a bit and are taken out of the freezer in the morning so they will be quite cold if you get them in the morning (they will stay partially frozen all day on a real cold day). I find them absolutely deliciously if placed in a 350F oven for 5 to 15 minutes (depending on if they are frozen or not).
Nashle,
Tom
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