Beach Farm: Week 15 or 113 Days

We rose early this morning so that we could get to the beach farm before work. Yes, every day is a work day, and on a day like today, hitting the farm is a luxury. We are there less and less, which is really all that is needed. The water had been turned off on November first, and on that same day I removed my irrigation timer. Since then, the weather has been rather good to us, rain some, but also warmer temperatures, and not too much wind.

It is now November fourteen, and knowledgeable gardeners that you are, you are fully aware of what's not present in our kitchen garden. It's true, only so much can be grown to eat now, but eating we are. Tonight's dinner had yellow bells, mixed greens, and radishes -all from the beach. If we are lucky, this will continue long into December, until the day we head out of town for Minnesota Christmas.  They just received 12 inches of snow.

It took some time to get over the loss of the heat-loving vegetables. After all, those are what we think of when we think of 'farm.' Now that the momentary post-garden depression has passed, and the green things are filling out, the farm feels right again, a little bit like spring.

The water is now off for the season, and with that comes watering concerns. It's been two weeks since my last visit, but there appears to be little to worry over. It's cool. It rains at least once a week. And, there's the ocean, humidity, and the dewpoint, all conspiring to condense moisture onto surfaces like lettuce, broccoli, and snap peas. Thank you for watering.

What remains of the morning dew on the snap peas.

And on the broccoli, which has put on some heft over the last two weeks. 

Which warranted the makeshift plastic tent build-out. It's a start. Our enemy here is the cold wind, and the low-energy sun. Old windows would be way cooler, err warmer, and longer-lived too.

The mizuna mixed greens are perfectly sweet and spicy.

I hastily seeded this entire area (formerly of broccoli) with arugula in two rows, and mesclun mix in two rows. While the arugula is taking off, all that seems to be growing adjacent are weeds -bad seeds?

Radish.

Just for the simple compensation of picking something, everyone should grow radishes into the fall. They're sweet and spicy, not just spicy -like summer radishes, and the greens go right into the salad.

I haven't been harvesting the collards -not a big fan, but today we took some. There are white flies pestering them now that the summer broccoli has been harvested. White flies are not terribly offensive as pests go, but they do sap the plants. Hopefully we will have a good hard freeze for a couple of weeks in, say, maybe January.

While Betsy hoed the weeds, I noticed lots of earthworms squiggling about. This one above exited its tunnel and moved near the parsley seedlings. When we broke ground, in July, I did not see even one. 

As with the mesclun mix, the spinach seeds simply did not produce. This is the sole plant from a whole packet of seeds. So wish we had more, love home grown, cool weather spinach.

Today's harvest. We plucked all the peppers, as they had finally looked like our basil -pale green and yellow leaves. There was a cold, wet day last week that did them in. Got some collards, and salad greens, a few radishes too. I also picked some celery. If the weather stays reasonable, some snap peas and broccoli may be in our future. Is it too late to plant garlic or onions? I don't think so.