I work at Wellspring Charitable Gardens, a CSA farm in Oakdale, California.
This newsletter is my weekly journal of what we did at the farm and what we harvested for that week’s produce baskets.
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Today we harvested rutabagas. We are growing one 25 foot row. The seeds are directly planted in the ground and then they are thinned to give each root space to grow. This was the third time we have picked from this row. After harvest, while walking the field I was surprised to see how many roots were still in the ground. It looks as if it hasn’t been harvested. We still have about one hundred to harvest. When we pick the largest roots this leaves room for the remaining rutabagas to grow. It looks like I am going to need a few more rutabaga recipes.
Members received either broccoli or Napa cabbage this week. We have about 40 broccoli plants that have started to produce this fall. With another 60-70 that we will start harvesting in January and February. We wait for the first head, but then after that the plants will send out shoots that we can cut and send until April. We only cut 13 heads today, so everyone else got Napa cabbage.
We are cleaning out the winter squash. We sent the last of our butternut and spaghetti squash this week.
We cut the last of our Brussels sprouts greens. I had our volunteer strip any remaining lower leaves so the plants can concentrate on the sprout production. We have one or two plants with sprouts that are big enough to harvest, but these will be for next year. In our warm climate, we can’t make the Brussels sprouts ready in the fall.
We made another cutting on our braising greens. These are plants in the mustard family. We cut them every three weeks or so depending on the new growth and the health of the plant. This is our third harvest since fall started.
We cut more dill and parsley today.
This week we had fruit available. We have a small persimmon and pomegranate tree at the garden, but this is not nearly enough to supply our small membership.
At the end of the season we found a source for Fuyu persimmons. They are very sweet and much better than anything from the store.
We sent out the last of the pomegranates that we received at Thanksgiving today.
We also had a member donate one mandarin and one lemon per member. She had a small mandarin tree with fruit she couldn’t use and the lemons are just getting started.
This week we planted wheat and rye. I have never done this before and I am still a little skeptical about what will happen. It was suggested by our master gardener as a cover crop that will help to bring additional organic matter to the soil. The organic matter will be in the form of the grass stalks and roots. Because we are a small operation, we also will be able to harvest the seed heads and eat them. Lot’s of fun to come.
Have a great week,
Julie Moreno
When I am not digging in the dirt or in cooking in the kitchen, I am writing about it at fooddemystifed.com