The Final Harvest
Summer came and went on the farm this week. The weather went from nearly 90 degrees and sunny, to 25 degrees and snowing in a matter of hours. I have never seen such a drastic temperature swing in my life. Don’t get me wrong, Colorado can have some bizarre weather, and it is not totally unusual to go from sunny to snowing in a matter of minutes, but the temperature swing for this time of year was simply bizarre and a bit apocalyptic with everything else going on, too.
On Monday, before the storm and before the drastic temperature swing arrived, I found myself in the hoop house harvesting as many summer and winter squash, peppers, and tomatoes as possible. With the forecast, it was simply uncertain just how cold it would get here, especially at the farm which has already experienced several frost events this summer. Like farmers throughout the mountains here and Front Range of Colorado, I was frantically harvesting everything I could to save the harvest of the summer. If the drought, extreme heat, and the pests we have experienced in the garden this year weren’t enough stress on the plants already, I feared this intense temperature swing would be the end of the summer in the hoop house. So, I spent a few hours harvesting over 30 lbs. each of peppers and tomatoes, nearly 15 lbs. of summers squash and 50 lbs. of spaghetti squash and pumpkins. It was the largest harvest I have had all at one time this year, and our little vegetable fridge was bursting at the seams, but I managed to fit the peppers and summer squash in just fine, and thanked heavens that tomatoes and winter squash don’t require refrigeration.
Due to the large harvest, I again found myself in the kitchen planning a way to process all of the veggies. I found a really great sounding green chile sauce recipe in my canning cookbook and made it with about 10 lbs of the green tomatoes I harvested (see the cooking progression below). Although it is most definitely not a green chile sauce and more similar to a ketchup or chutney, it still turned out to be delicious. I still have 20 lbs of tomatoes, both ripe and green, that I need to start making a game plan for later today and need to tackle the peppers I harvested as well. I froze the summer squash in cubes for sautéing later this fall and winter, and luckily, the spaghetti squash and pumpkins can sit in our cold storage room for months without going bad.
Even with the extreme shift in weather this week, I felt grateful for the cold and the moisture it brought. Fall is by far my favorite season and the shift from the dramatic heat we have experienced this summer to cool and breezy weather was a welcome change. And with this shift, the time to say goodbye to the first summer crops that we grew on the farm has nearly arrived. I foresee a large hoop house clean out happening in the next couple of weeks as I transition the beds from the tomatoes, peppers, and squash, to radish, turnips, and greens. Even though it is always a bit sad to pull out these plants that have fed me and my family for the past several months, I must say I am looking forward to the change of pace and all the beauty that comes with fall in the mountains.
Until next week,
Farmer Kinzie