Welcome back to another episode of Lost In the Farmers Market, this episode comes to you early thanks to well good timing and the attack of the pollen! No seriously it’s early because as always Mother Nature provides and today we are going to talk about the agricultural practice of ‘Culling’. It is at the end of every season that some of your crops will be ready to harvest, but we know there are generally two primary categories of crops, the cool season crops and the warm season crops both of which must be culled. Below is a list of the varied crops of fall/winter (cool season) and spring/summer (warm season).
Cool Season Crops – Cabbage, Turnips, Broccoli, Cauliflower, Mustard, Arugula, Radishes, Kale, Collards, Lettuce, Chicory, Celery, Cilantro/Coriander, Dill, Spinach, Swiss Chard, Carrots, Kohlrabi, Beets, Peas Brussel Sprouts Strawberries and Endives.
Warm Season Crops – Tomatoes, Okra, Peppers, Eggplant, Ground Cherries, Tomatillos, Basil, Fennel, Tarragon, Stevia, Cowpeas, Cucumbers, Melons, Squash, Sweet Potatoes, Rhubarb, Squash, Corn, Beans, Potatoes, Calaloo/Amaranth and, Blueberries.
As some of you might notice certain crops aren’t listed because they might be started in one season and be harvested in a differing one. For instance sweet potatoes might be planted in spring, but might not be harvested until fall. Likewise the term warm and cool season isn’t exactly specific because it just refers to the temperature of most of the growing days in the time period. A warm season crop like tomatoes might be started while it’s still cool in the spring, and might not be ‘culled’ until the cool days start appearing in early fall. Tomatoes definitely do most of their producing in the warm days of summer though. So on to the term culling, it sounds terrible because most of you might be familiar with the usage of the phrase ‘Culling the Herd’ which means reducing the number of a given group of animals for a specific purpose. This term can be a very bad thing when you see it in some politician’s or serial killers manifesto, but it can be good thing if say a herd of cows has grown too numerous for their own health and safety. In a more controversial use, it can be used to describe reducing the number of wild animals of a specific type in a state park, such as culling the Wolves.
In the specific context of plant-based agriculture culling as a twice-yearly process where crops that are not perennial are tilled under or otherwise sent to the compost pile at the end of their useful productive life. So, in late August the nightshades (Tomatoes, Peppers, ect) are all culled to make room for the cold season crops. Likewise in spring, the Cold season crops are culled to make room for the warm season ones. The cycle repeats yearly without fail and is only really governed by the gardener’s own initiative, and the weather. Now that plant matter that you are culling has a prettier name, Harvesting, which is essentially what you are doing but in this case it is the last harvest you can get from the plants in question. Now speaking of what I call Last Of Year harvests this leads into some photographs from the garden of my own end of winter harvests, the harvest numbers for 2021 are coming but not ready yet so stay tuned for that.
Starting off we have a picture of the size difference between Goose, Duck and Chicken eggs for those who were curious. The goose eggs are on the left, Duck eggs in the middle and chicken eggs on the right. This isn’t exactly harvest related but useful information to have.
Here is the big and final Mustard harvest of 2021; this is a total of ten heads of Japanese Red Giant Mustard (Brassica juncea). Red giant is a variety I grow for myself and sell at the market every year because of its very predictable habits and high yield for our climate.
This
is the heaviest and physically largest individual Japanese Red Giant mustard plant (Brassica juncea) I've ever grown. By itself it weighed a few fractions of an ounce over two pounds.It's central stem was over 1" in diameter and it had dozens of side-shoots. It's given me some new ideas on how to grow mustard.
This specimen of JRG Mustard is one where it tried to bloom after planting, I nipped the flowers off and then it did all this side branching.
Here we have a nearly last of year harvest of Swiss Chard (Beta vulgare) which was a total of thirty-eight heads of chard. I even sold some of this at the market. the total weight of this harvest of chard was just shy of four and a half pounds.
This is the last of the Winterbor (top), Red Russian (middle) and Marrow Stem (bottom) Kale (Brassica oleracea var. sabellica) for the year. At this point the freezer officially reached capacity.
With all that garden goodness covered this is the part of the blog where I have to advertise for the Fayetteville City Market. Now I know you readers probably don’t much like advertisements, but by booth at the City Market helps to cover the costs of running the test garden and literally maintains the Research & Development budget that is used to bring you the information that has made up the backbone of this blog. Also, as of the start of 2019, my booth can now process credit or debit cards thanks to the acquisition of s a Square reader so your payment options have doubled. With that said, if you want to get some GMO-free, Organic vegetables, herbs and fruiting shrubs come on down to the Fayetteville City Market on 325 Maxwell Street in downtown Fayetteville between the Hours of 9:00 am and 1:00 pm on Saturdays. Even in bad weather the market goes on though you might have to look for me under the ‘arches’ of the Transportation Museum’s front entryway.
This Week's Market List:
Spring Veggies: ($2.00 each on SALE!)
Parris Island Romaine Lettuce
Cherokee Lettuce
Cimarron Lettuce
Lollo Rosso Lettuce
Black Magic Dinosaur Kale
Red Russian Kale
Summer Veggies & Herbs: ($3.00 each)
Sungold Cherry Tomato
Chocolate Cherry Tomato
Glacier Cherry Tomato (Bush type)
San Marzano Improved Paste Tomato
Cherokee Purple Tomato
Tango Celery
Delizz Everbearing Strawberry
Toscana Everbearing Strawberry
Canary Island Sage
Coming Soon:
Walla Walla Sweet Onion (Plants)
Cotton
Okra
Zanzibar Castor Beans
We have a new place to share information and work on groovy sustainable stuff! You can look for Sustainable Neighbors in our own Nextdoor.com group under the name “Sustainable Neighbors of Fayetteville”. You don’t have to live in Fayetteville to join but it is a private group so feel free to request to join us if you are signed up on the Nextdoor.com site.
https://nextdoor.com/g/ybvdm226x/?is=nav_bar
Unfortunately, Covid-19 is still mucking up the works in terms of meeting in person. The good news is that Sustainable Neighbors does have a Discord Server. You can request access through our Meetup.com page or you can request access via our Nextdoor.com group. The meetup.com page is below for anyone looking to join us.
https://www.meetup.com/SustainableNeighbors/
Since our meetings have an open-door policy you don’t need to buy anything or maintain any sort of attendance standard, you can come on in and join the meetings. When this Covid-19 mess calms down we may be able to resume normal in-person meetings. If not, you can always send me questions through this blog or visit the farmer’s market. This brings to a close the seventh LITFM post of 2021; stay tuned the next episode which should be posted on the 16th of April. There will be more garden updates and other cool stuff.
No comments:
Post a Comment