Farm Happenings

Weather: An incredibly windy Monday left the cover crops and dried-out prairie plants combed over. We missed Thursday’s scattered frost. Big, cold drops of rain on Thursday morning, along with a blood-red sky in the morning, forecast plenty of weather on the way.

What We Did: Mom and I cut squash on Saturday before she caught her flight back home on Sunday. She caught right on to our picky, only-harvest-the-ripest squash standards. We leave a lot of squash in the field, but who wants pasty, starchy squash? On Monday, Sanna, Ben, Sarah and I took the root harvester out to pull in the celeriac crop, and got through about half of it before operator error put the machine out of commission until we get the parts repaired by the local welder (we should have them back by Thursday). Sanna did an admirable job of driving the tractor that pulled the wagon with the bin we use to catch the roots, especially considering her limited experience. I promised her she would feel like an old pro before too long. On Tuesday, the crew picked up the squash, and I cut the rest of what we didn’t get to on Saturday. We also harvested the crop of daikon radish on Tuesday, filling a 20-bushel bin to brimming with the long white roots.

Comings and Goings: Chris traveled on Wednesday to Spring Valley, Wisconsin for a monthly organizational meeting for the Organic Farming Conference.