Pulling plants

The inevitableness of pulling plants is upon us.

We are hitting cooler temperatures and plants that have been in the ground since April or May are seeing their dying days. We've got a bed of main crop potatoes to harvest before the first frost. Our squash and pumpkins have been pulled - unripe ones are now ripening in the sun rather than sitting in the wet field. Our tomatoes, which went into the ground earlier than in most farms we know of - in the first week of May - are just dry, brown stems with sparse sun-ripening fruit on them. And our basil, which produced and produced for us, is now stalky and browning. 

So, we pulled our plants, forked the land and sowed some fast-growing buckwheat, hoping to get a small cover crop to grow before the days are too short and the nights are too cold.




And there's still plenty to harvest: chard, kale, scallions, chives, parsley, celery, celeriac, Brussels sprouts, leeks, fava beans, radish, turnip, daikon, mustards, arugula, collards, tatsoi, spinach, Chinese cabbage, broccoli (we hope), carrots, parsnip, hot peppers and lettuce.