A First Look at Fall

Fall is many of our gardeners' favorite time of year! We get relief from the Summer heat, and there are a lot less weeds to pull. But it can still be pretty busy.

As Summer crops start to be removed, we focus on replanting beds with various leafy greens and root vegetables which are cold hearty. This includes lots of Brassicas, like cabbage, collards, kale and purple mizuna (Japanese mustard), and other greens like arugula, lettuce, spinach and chard. We plant many colorful varieties of root vegetables like watermelon radishes, purple turnips and golden beets. 

There are also crops which were planted in Summer that we harvest in Fall, like milling corn and pumpkins. The corn leaves are already starting to brown but will continue until the cobbs are also dry or until just before first frost. We have six different varieties of milling corn this year with colors ranging from white to yellow and red. I'm excited about the Bloody Butcher corn, which is a very dark red kernel. We have lots of varieties of pumpkins as well. The pumkpin leaves are beginning to yellow and the stems will brown soon indicating that it is time to harvest. We have a large, long-handle dipper gourd plant growing on top of a buckeye tree with a substantial amount of fruit hanging. This is not a food crop, but the gourds will cure through Winter and can be used for crafting next year.

There are quite a few Fall fruits that the team looks forward to every year, particularly the persimmons, apples and grapes. The persimmons are just now starting to fall, and every morning is a race to collect them up before the deer get them. We have five native persimmon trees in the Garden and our team loves them.

There are quite a few flowers that do well in cooler weather as well. For instance, snapdragons, violas, marigolds and zinnias will all survive until the first frost.  

I think the most unique part of our garden in the Fall is seed saving. We help process lots of seed for John Coykendall's collection, but also for the kitchens. Through the Summer, we harvest dried flower pods from Love-in-a-Mist, coriander and dill. These will be processed and the seeds will be used in the kitchens. Of course, John has a myriad of different colored beans and peas already being processed that will eventually be stored in freezers.

Overall, our Garden team looks forward to enjoying Fall by the hot wood stove in the Garden Shed, processing seeds, shucking corn and listening to John tell stories about his peas and beans. 

– Dakota Eddy, Farmstead Ambassador