October is the month of gathering. For me it’s the time to bring all the storage crops inside before the unknown deadline of snow arrives. With the decreasing light and cooler temperatures at a certain point every year growth stops. At what point that is varies from crop to crop and from year to year. Because the root cellar is tied to some degree on the outside temperatures (no electricity is used to cool it), putting crops in there too early for long term storage can lead to sprouting or rotting sooner than I would like. There’s a trick to timing, with all the variables throwing curve balls at me each year, that I still am challenged to navigate. Sometimes I get it right and sometimes not. Even if I did the exact same thing, planting the same varieties at the same time, each year, I would get a different result due to the weather variations. It definitely keeps things interesting. I’ll share a couple of examples.

Over the past several years I’ve noticed the falls are warmer overall. The date I used to plant the fall crops ten or twenty years ago is too early. The storage Kohlrabi seems particularly picky. If I plant too late for a given year, it won’t size up to it’s full potential. If I plant too early it will start to split and even rot in the field before the cellar is cold enough to store it. The space between the too early and too late seems to shift. There’s been a couple years where I lost almost the whole crop. It looked beautiful in late August, but by October most had rotted in the field. Last year I planted too late and they were okay, but not the size I like to see. This year I planted only a week earlier and got splitting and a few rotten ones. I’ll be giving out the split ones the next couple weeks. Cut out the splits and the rest is plenty good. The non-split ones will be part of the winter share.

Brussel’s Sprouts is another one. Last year I’d say I planted them too early and they were bigger than I like. The seed for the variety I’ve grown for the past several years was not available this year so I had to try a couple of new ones. The timing was off and the sprouts are smaller than I like to see… But they will still be good and members will see them over the next couple weeks too.

The storage carrots have been mostly too big the past few years since my old planting date was just too early for the adjusting climate. Last year they were a bit too small, but this year I think I hit it about right and they are a nice size. The winter radish, however I again planted a bit too late and it will be smaller than I like. They had also seen a few years of many being too mature and splitting so I started planting a bit latter, trying to find the sweet spot. The celeriac and parsnips were timed well this year, as was the chicory and fall arugula.

Life is often a juggle for most of us, so just wanted to share some of the vegetable grower’s juggle 🙂

Nature’s bounty keeps us on our toes.