ALMOPOHA

Almost Post Harvest

Harvest could have been finished yesterday but I felt the silverskin 'Nootka' could use a few more days to size up. At least that is my hope for them. Instead of pulling those I weeded the saffron and potato beds (pulled some new potatoes!), cleaned up the field for discing, and removed signs from all the empty beds.

I used my drop spreader to distribute 30 pounds of buckwheat seed over my unused soil. With luck, my neighbor farmer will be able to get that seed turned in with his disc today (you know, before it sprouts!). 

I did harvest all the Marbled Purple Stripe 'Siberian' and packaged them for shipment to the barn. Rather frustrated then that the ladder I had been using to access the loft was missing. So I bundled the garlic and brought it back to Brooklyn. It now sits in the van, all 450 plants, waiting for a proper place to reside before my next trip to the barn on Thursday, a day expected to be quite hot. Several temperature and humidity changes over the course of the week isn't very good for the curing garlic and all I can do is hope that the stuff is hardier than expected. All thanks to a ladder. One cannot operate (especially from a distance) when crucial links to the work disappear. I would hate to head out to the barn to pick up a supply of garlic and not be able to access it. Solution: buy a ladder and haul it there and back as needed -aka nuisance work. 

Harvest is the hardest part of a year's work, but it's quite doable without the headaches of disorganization, traffic, and distance. I gather I well under appreciated how much this could tax my project. It's probably better not to think about the new season right now, although I don't have long to ruminate on the passed season before I must decide to move forward with another. The seasons don't start and end, but flow seamlessly into one another.