Saturday, October 24, 2015

Wooly Bear

Wooly Bear, Wooly Bear what do you know?
Wooly Bear, Wooly Bear when will it snow?

Friday, October 16, 2015

Thursday, October 15, 2015

Not all of fall is shades of amber...

Late plantings at the Farm School are coming in with the turning of the season cycle.
The hope here is to maintain these colder season crops through the winter and into the spring. 
For the first time in my experience we have been needing to catch and release actual locusts.
Arugula and other lettuces are enjoying these warm days and cooler nights, but the killing frosts are coming soon.  Row covers and frost fabric will help extend their growing season through October.
 Snow peas are doing well now too.
 I guess you can call this scatter planting.
Despite these warm days winter is definitely on the way and it will soon be time to browse through seed catalogs and begin planning the gardens for the nest growing season.  Though I have not seen a wooly bear caterpillar yet this season (the wider the black band the more harsh the winter, so say the Olde Tymers), but the oak trees are dropping acorns in huge numbers.  Some Olde Tymers say that is another sign of a harsh winter to come, but others say it is really a reaction to the previous winter.  Either way, it would be excellent to find a way to process or cook all those acorns for storage, or feed them all to some pigs.  Just watch out for the weevil larvae.  Blech.