It's officially Fall, but you couldn't tell it by the weather this week. Yesterday and today up in the 80's! You can't beat that! So far we've only had a light frost and it hasn't killed anything.

We have tomatoes still coming out in the field, and in the hoop house we have peppers galore and eggplant. We've got all the winter squash picked and put in the barn. We had an abundant sweet potato crop, so we are looking good.

We've been working on winding up the electric fence around the old strawberry patch and getting ready to get it all tore up. We've been cutting runners off the new strawberry patch, they are just going to town with all this warm weather. Greg has got a couple of the garden plots plowed up for winter, so we are slowly making progress.

It's hard to believe that Thanksgiving is only a month away. It's time to think back and remember all of our blessings and all the things we have to be Thankful for!

These have been trying times in more ways than one. I had to close down our CSA operation because of some family issues that I needed more time to deal with. The summer heat and lack of rain was hard on produce. Our dried bean crop was a total failure, we had no zucchini or cucumbers. Our field tomatoes did not do the best either. When the temperature gets over 90 degrees the blooms drop off and do not set fruit. Greg did start digging the sweet potatoes and they look to be promising. Will be anxious to see how some of the new varieties that we planted will do, and how well people will respond to them. He also got the strawberry tips that we had rooted earlier planted. We are getting okra still and the peppers and eggplant that we planted in the hoop house are really doing well. We have not started to pick any winter squash or pumpkins yet, but they don't look like they did really well either. This is the fun and frustration of farming. To be a farmer you have to be an eternal optimist, because you are always hoping that next year will be a better year than the last!

Well continued excessive heat for over 3 weeks now. Tuesday we had 108 degrees. As the local weather man said, and I quote, "We blew the record of 104 away"! Then I heard same weather man say yesterday that we had a cold front move through. So I went and looked at my thermometer and saw it was only 95 degrees and I realized I guess he was right, that was a 13 degree drop from the day before!

So what does this all mean? Well the green beans and dried beans are pretty much dried up. We do irrigate the green beans, but not the dried beans, but even with water they just won't set fruit when temperatures are around 85 or above. Same with the summer squash and cucumbers. The tomatoes are not doing to bad, but again when the fruit that's already set is ripe there will be a lag before more tomatoes are available because the blooms will have fallen off during this heat. The one thing that loves this heat is the okra. We've been cutting about 15 gallons worth each week!

Yesterday we went to pick up our 3,000 strawberry tips, so now we have to get those potted so they can get a good root system going. Then we have to put them under a misting system that sprinkles every 3 or so minutes for a minute at a time. Should be fun in this heat!

HOT, HOT, HOT!!!!!!!!!!! Wow almost 2 weeks of above 90 degree weather. It's burning everything up. We are running water on everything pretty much 24/7! We are getting some heirloom tomatoes now and the summer squash has started. Okra is coming along little by little, the deer won't leave it alone! We've been picking blackberries for a couple of weeks now, but don't get to many at a time. They got hit by a late frost and the winter was awfully hard on them. I've been dehydrating some tomatoes, okra and bell peppers, so we have something to sell over the winter. Continuing to plug away! Hope everyone is keeping cool!

It's been a while since I've last posted, sorry. We've been plodding along. A couple of weeks ago we had a storm that tore the plastic off our large hoop house with tomatoes in it. Now when people ask how they are grown, we can truly tell them they are outside! We've been digging on the potatoes and using Greg's new potato digger. It works pretty well, but we still have to do some digging to get the little ones out. We've got one of the little hoop houses planted with peppers and eggplant for late fall production, hopefully! The CSA boxes have been getting blackberries, carrots, fennel, basil, kohlrabi, lettuce, okra, tomatoes, peppers, leeks and potatoes. Hopefully soon we will have some summer squash.

At least today it has cooled off after an evening thunderstorm yesterday. That 96-98 degrees and humidity is brutal! Hopefully this reprieve will last a bit longer! Green beans are blooming, but things won't set when it's so hot. Hopefully everyone out there is keeping cool in all this heat.

We were needing rain, and now we've had rain. What we did not need was more wind. In last nights storm we lost the plastic off of our biggest hoop house that we plant tomatoes in, and a few more branches!

We've been planting beans, and have beans, summer squash and cucumbers all sprouting. We've got a few of our first summer squash starting to bloom. The deer had been eating on our okra plants, so Greg sprayed a hot pepper/rotten egg concoction on them and they are looking better, but now with the rain he'll need to respray them.

Over the weekend we worked at cleaning out one of the little hoophouses and tilling it and laying drip tape and plastic in order to get ready to plant some things to go late into the fall and early winter. This afternoon I've been working at doing a second stringing of our field tomatoes. Last week we worked on pulling weeds out of the potatoes, have quite a bit done, but still have 3-4 rows to go yet.

Our fennel, cardoon and carrots are looking great, may even have fennel this week for the CSA boxes!

This cooler weather has been a blessing, but looks like it's not too last! Talking 90 degrees again this week! Well it was nice while it lasted.

Good news! Blueberries are here! Everyone will be getting some today in their CSA boxes! There will also be eggs, lettuce, and onions. The half shares will get peas, and the full shares will get swiss chard, kale and kohlrabi. Now I know you're going to ask what's that so here is some information!

Kohlrabi shares its botanical name, brassica oleracea, with its close relative, broccoli. But Kohl, meaning "cabbage," and rabi, meaning "turnip," better describes this delicate vegetable. Kohlrabi, like other brassicas, thrives in cool weather. Kohlrabi also mimics its brassica relatives nutritionally. It offers generous amounts of vitamin A and C, and emphasizes the minerals potassium and calcium. It's high in fiber and contains only 40 calories per cup.

After washing, trim away any woody or tough portions of skin. Kohlrabi does not have to be peeled after cooking. Kohlrabi is excellent cooked or raw. Grate kohlrabi raw into salads, or make a non traditional coleslaw with grated kohlrabi and radish, chopped parsley, green onion, and dressing of your choice. Try raw kohlrabi, thinly sliced, alone or with a dip. Peel Kohlrabi and eat it raw like an apple. Steam kohlrabi whole 25-30 minutes or thinly sliced 5-10 minutes. Dress slices simply with oil, lemon juice, and fresh dill weed, or dip in flour and briefly fry. Saute grated kohlrabi in butter; add herbs or curry for enhanced flavor. Add sliced or cubed kohlrabi to hearty soups, stews, or mixed vegetable stir-fry. Chill and marinate cooked kohlrabi for a summer salad. Add fresh herbs. Mash cooked kohlrabi, mix with cooked potato form into patties and fry in butter. Larger, older kohlrabi are good stuffed. Scoop out center, fill with chosen stuffing mixture, and simmer, covered for 20 minutes.

Store kohlrabi globe in a plastic bag. It will last for 1 month refrigerated.

The above information came from "From Asparagus to Zucchini" a guide to cooking farm-fresh seasonal produce.