October on the Farm
Fall has settled in with all her abundance. The days are quickly growing shorter and the mornings are crisp. Somehow we made it all the way through September without a single nip of frost. I’m still harvesting flowers and dye plants every day and I’m feeling so deeply tired yet enlivened by the abundance. I just have to make it through the next 6 weeks. Slow season is almost here!
A cover crop of peas and oats has been planted in all the rows that have been harvested out. When a row gets harvested out I plant cover crop the same day. I rake the straw mulch to the side, then sow alternate rows of peas and oats with our Earthway seeder using the pea plate for both. Once planted I spread the straw mulch back in place so the birds don’t pillage the seed. The straw is from last years triticale crop.
The Hopi Black Dye sunflowers were harvested out last weekend. The heads are hanging to dry in the greenhouse where the birds can’t get to them. I should have a good amount of this dye to offer this fall!
I’m currently working on harvesting the weld crop. I have two rows of it and yesterday between a bunch of other chores, I harvested out one row. Today I will harvest out the second row which will feel like a huge check off my list.
One row down and one to go! I hang the weld to dry in our little greenhouse. We have plastic to cover the roof so it doesn’t get sun scorched. It’s nice and warm in there so things dry quickly. I have so much more weld than I imagined!
Last fall as our chiles were sun curing on screens in the greenhouse, mice got to them and the crop was lost. That’s how I realized the importance of chile ristras. They’re not just beautiful, they’re a way to save a crop. So here we are in the middle of busy harvest season and it’s time to harvest out the chiles before the frost comes. I’ve been learning how to make ristras from Youtube videos people have shared. So far I’ve made 2 ristras of Guajillo chiles and 1 of Hatch red chile. These will be hung in the greenhouse to sun cure where mice can’t get to them. Hopefully the green guajillos will turn red as they sun cure. Once the chiles are dried the ristras will be brought into the kitchen and we’ll make red chile from them all year.
I’m so pleased with my first ristras and so excited to make more and eventually fill the kitchen with them.
These Mareko Fana chiles are one of my favorite. This is an Ethiopian variety which is used to make the seasoning berbere. I have a hard time getting them to ripen here in our short growing season but many of them will turn red as they sun cure. I will make a few ristras of these. I make red chile with these and it’s my favorite! I also grew traditional red chiles, ancho poblanos, paprika, cayenne, and jalapeno peppers. I have a ton of cayenne peppers and I’m hoping they will ripen to red so I can make them into ristras.
I’ve had a very late start to canning this year because I’ve been so crazy busy keeping up to the dye crops. Tomatoes are pretty much the only thing I can. I put up 100 quarts every season. From them I’ll make pasta sauces, and a variety of sauces and soups. The only other thing we regularly can is salsa which we hope to get to this week. Our kitchen has been taken over by tomatoes and chiles!
This photo was snapped the other day before the last cosmos harvest. These have now been cut out and cover crop has been sown. The constant shift and evolution. Seeds planted, plants grown, harvested, and sent to the compost. The cycle repeats.
It feels nice to be here in the middle of this season of abundance. The crops are our reward for all the hard work. We will follow through and finish the work of harvesting and storing the crops away, and then thoroughly take in the slow season so we can enthusiastically begin again when spring comes back around. I am grateful.
