The National Weather Service is calling for some substantial rainfall during the early part of next week—which we are delighted to hear about. It’s been just about a perfect fall so far. We’ve had enough rain so that we haven’t had to irrigate much during the last few weeks, and out on the grassland, things are greening up fast. At the same time, the storms so far have been spaced far enough apart to allow us to get in with the tractors and do the things that need doing—cultivating, preparing ground for cover crops and planting a few last vegetable crops. The day before yesterday I was able to get in with our Einbock tine cultivator and cultivate (weed) the cover crops that we had planted the previous week. Although our cover crops will eventually outgrow most weeds in the field, certain ones, like burning nettle and malva, can keep up with the cover crop until they are mature enough to set seeds. This can create big problems when we plant our vegetable crops the following spring. If the timing is right—just prior to cover crop emergence, when the weeds are in the “white thread” stage—the vibrating tines on the Einbock cultivator kill almost all of the weeds and leave a nice fluffy “dry mulch” for the cover crop to emerge into. It’s a great tool to have when the conditions are right. During some years, however, I never get a chance to use it because the soil doesn’t dry out enough after planting.
These pictures show the tine cultivator and some rows of young cover crop plants (oats, bell beans, vetch, and peas) that emerged after the cultivator passed through.
Our late padron pepper patch is producing a nice crop, so some of you will be getting these tasty treats this week. An exciting development is that we got new green clamshells to put them in (modeled above by Magpie the cat). These “RePet” containers are made of %100 post-consumer waste. They use green beverage containers which were previously landfilled or sent overseas and are fully recyclable as #1 plastic. Some of you will get the last of our clear clamshells this week but we are placing a big order of the green ones and will use them next season for our strawberries, blueberries, and padrons. We’re happy to finally have a more environmentally sound solution for the plastic clamshells!
Next week (November 19/20) will be the final delivery of the regular season. The every-other-week winter session will start up on December 3/4. Check with Sarah if you have any questions about payment or winter holds.
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