“All that is gold does not glitter,
all who wander are not lost;
the old that is strong does not wither,
deep roots are not reached by frost.”
– J.R.R. Tolkien
Hello everybody! This weeks newsletter was written by me, an intern named Ben.
I awoke on Saturday morning to a chill in the bunkhouse. A chill that made me want to stay in bed for a little bit longer, but alas I had things to do so I got up, threw on as many layers as I could and peeked my head outside. What I saw was similar to what I see every morning, but somewhat off. The grass was a beautifully cold blue-ish white color instead of its usual vibrant green, it was the first frost of the season. I would have spent more time admiring the grass if the air wasn’t quite so cold and if I wasn’t quite so hungry. Later that day I was walking around the farm and noticed that the plants had all reverted to their normal states. How could that be?
Let’s rewind to Friday. It was a cold and wet morning, with the rain letting up in the afternoon. The work we had to do was fairly similar to that of any other Friday (pull weeds, harvest squash, plant, etc.) except for one thing, Norm told us that we would get light frost tonight. This meant that we needed to prepare by putting row cover (a piece of fabric used to keep out animals and in this case frost out while still letting in sunlight and water) over a few of our crops. You might be thinking; how could putting a piece of thin fabric over the plants possibly protect them from below freezing temperatures? You might be right, the row cover does not necessarily keep the plants above freezing temperature, but the cold itself is not what kills the plants, the main culprit is the frost.
Frost is pretty much the same as dew except instead of water condensing from the air onto the cool ground it de-sublimates, meaning it turns from a gas directly into a solid. Because of this light frost will only form on surfaces that are below a certain temperature which is why deep roots and vegetables under row cover aren’t affected by frost. The reason that we need to protect the plants from frost is that some plants’ leaf cells may be damaged by sharp ice crystals. There are however some plants that may tolerate (or even benefit from) a light frost, such as:
- root vegetables (e.g. carrots, parsnips, beets)
- leafy greens (e.g. lettuces, kale, chard)
- cruciferous vegetables (e.g. cabbages, cauliflower, bok choy, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, radishes, kale, collard, mustard, turnips, rutabagas)
To answer the original question; most of the vegetation was fine after the frost because most of our crops wouldn’t be damaged by a light frost and we protected the ones that would.
Farmer Notes:
- Fall Harvest Gathering is Sat. Oct. 11th. Details and itinerary will be in next week’s newsletter. Rsvp if you can
- Very cool weather this last week with 2 morning frosts. The corn, beans, and cucumbers were very slow to ripen
- Fennel says ‘adios’ for another year
- The garlic now and from here forward is Italian
- Perfect weather for the Kohlrabi and it is so sweet. Eat it just like a radish, in stir fry, on salads, or like French fries
- Acorn squash this week – we also have sweet dumpling, delicata and butternut in future boxes
- Melons are a mix again – mainly canteloupe and watermelon remain
- Corn is for full only, single should get some next week
- We have received almost 4 inches of rain already in September
- Enjoy the beautiful Fall weather and the changing of the leaves
- Wash all of the produce please
