digging potatoes in the snow

Potato update

The title of this post is a little misleading.  We did get a little bit of snow and it was flurrying when I finished digging the last of the potatoes and now--a couple hours later--the ground has a light covering of the white stuff on it.  The last of the potatoes are dug from the cornfield garden.  There are a few in the potager and those will be retrieved tomorrow when the replacement box is installed and the potato towers dismantled.  Once that is done the only produce left will be the kale which is not minding the cool nights and continues to do well. 

Cornfield update

Tomorrow I have one potato trench left to fill in and then there will be 25 raised rows completed and ready for next season.  They have been seeded with oats for a cover crop and the earliest planted are about five inches tall.  There are a few more rows that have just sprouted and a few more that have not germinated yet.  I am hopeful that all will grow this fall but feel that those rows that haven't will germinate in the spring which works too. 

I am working to spread shredded leaves in the walking spaces between the rows.  We had a big wind from the south a few days ago and it plastered every leaf in the orchard up against the pasture fence.  Since there were so many collected there it was easy to mow over them and blow them into windrows to be picked up and spread in the garden.  It was a trick I learned from my dad who did the same with his yard and those leaves were  collected and hauled to the farm.  Lisa has also been generous with her bagged leaves.  Her newest additions are yet to be spread but that should happen tomorrow.

There is room for more eight or ten more raised rows at the west end of the garden where the vine crops were and if weather permits I will be trying to get that area made into raised rows yet this fall as well.  The north half of the garden where the corn grew has not received much attention and that will be on the fall list if the weather cooperates.  I hope to remove the corn stalks and stack them for eventual composting or feed them to the herd.  We will see if they are interested. 

Farmstand update

The farmstand made its way to the machine shed pulled by Dad's pickup.  Right now it is tucked inside the doors in the alleyway.  I plan to cap the ends of the roof and try to add an awning before it is tucked into a final spot for the winter.  Right now the tables in the trailer are ones from the greenhouse and those will go back.  I hope over the winter to get more tables ready that will stay in the farmstand and add display space along the two sides that can hold baskets or perhaps a cooler.   

The farmstand has been a lot of fun and it was sad to put it away for the winter.  It will be fun to tweak it over the winter.