Thanks to those of you who braved the heat to come out to the Pumpkin Patch on Saturday. We enjoyed seeing you, and the goats and cows loved all the food and attention. We donated 100% of the pumpkin sales (over $800) to Linscott Charter School.
The high pressure zone and the heat that accompanied it during the later part of last week made life interesting around here. Normally our proximity to the coast (two miles) takes the edge off of most heat spells, but that wasn’t the case last week. What little wind we had was offshore—meaning the high 90’s they saw in Hollister were the same high 90’s we had here on the coast. The upshot of it all is that we are irrigating a lot more than we usually would at this time of year. During the worst of the heat we often have to do frequent, short duration irrigation sets just to keep the plants from being overly stressed. During these times, even where the soil moisture appears adequate, the plants can’t take it up fast enough and basically cook in the field. The good news is that, after another hot weekend, the jet stream is poised to drop further to the South bringing cooler temperatures and the possibility of rain.
Next year’s strawberry field is nearly complete. We’ve buried the drip tape and tucked in the mulch—all that is left is to hook up the drip system and to plumb in the valve assemblies. Even though we won’t plant for another six weeks or so, it is quite a relief to have this work done before the threat of serious rainfall. This is a lesson we learned the hard way when early fall storms made the work of preparing strawberry beds nearly impossible.
The hard squash has been trimmed off the vines and is in windrows waiting to be crated up. Most of the fields they grew in will be planted to over wintering cover crops in the coming weeks and the squash will be put in storage for use through the winter. It’s been a good year for hard squash and in the coming months in addition to butternuts, you should see: Orange and Green Kabochas, Carnival, Delicata, Hubbard and Spaghetti squashes and Winter Luxury cooking pumpkins. On the vegetable front, some items coming ready for fall harvest include: Red Ace and Chioggia beets, Black Spanish and Watermelon Radishes, Shelling Beans, Spinach, Broccoli and Fennel. In addition, the Peppers and Tomatoes are still going strong, as well as the Potatoes, Lettuce and Greens of all types.
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