Ugg. Yesterday was a long and tough day of getting ready for the snow and freezes that will be hitting tonight. The temps will end up down to the mid teens by the weekend which means even my row cover will do little to protect. So It is the mad rush to harvest everything in 2 days. First I went through the cucumber row in the greenhouse and picked every one that I could find. I ended up with 54 cukes but only about 12 pounds of weight.
Then it was time to get the tomatoes out. It started with 13.25 pounds of the paste style tomatoes which I gathered separately from the slicers.
20 more minutes and I had 38.25 pounds of slicers in the two tubs. They all went into boxes in the house for now as the cardboard can handle the weight.
The vines in the greenhouse had to come out so I went along and cut all the twine at the crown which let the cucumber plants all hang to the left side. I cut the bottoms of each then cut them from the side purlin.
Soon I had them being drug out the door and tossed into the back of my truck.
So much more light and space with the row removed.
The tomato row I cut the top twine holding each and laid the plants down where the cukes had been.
I drove the truck over and backed into the sheep pen where I slid the mass out for them to munch on.
The truck backed in near the greenhouse again I cut the bases of the tomato plants and hauled them out and tossed them in the truck.
I backed up to the mulch pile and these mushrooms greeted me. I ended up dropping the tomato plants on top of the fungus but they weren't the only mass of them nearby so I wasn't worried.
The tomato plants go to mulch as the animals shouldn't eat night shades.
The process of the pole garden is a pain. I only had to two lowest lines up this year so it was easier than other years. The two lines got pulled from the ratchets tensioners.
The fence to removed from around the garden to allow the birds in. I only got two of the four rows wound as the other two are pole beans which will take a bit to get the wires out of.
Tom was happy and strutting in the middle of the garden.
Everything has to go soon. I had taken a lot of the leaves of the lacinto kale for the co-op order so I had the tops to remove that were not buggy. In the 2 bags I got 6.75 pounds.
The perpetual spinach chard all fit in one big bag and amounted to 5.5 pounds.
The red kale filled 2 bags and gave me 9.75 pounds for a total of 22 pounds of kale/chard.
This puts my total harvest this year at over 5300 pounds. I still have a row of potatoes to dig, a dozen celery, cabbage, more kale, and possibly beans to add to the total which will be about 5500 by the end of the day.
The crunch has also been on for my other plants. I had to take another couple down which requires the lopping shears. One of the best means I have found for harvest is to top the plant then each set of branches gets cut off then the stalk split in half such the the branch can be hung by the half stalk. Works like a charm. The only problem is places to hang the plethora of branches...
I was pulling up the red chard and holy crap I had no clue they would grow out root bulbs this big. I stared at them for a while thinking they were beets, but this was a chard row. The biggest one is like a football.
It was getting later in the day and my body was super sore. I was going to haul the kale out but only got as far as lopping them off the root bases. Today I will haul them out and dump in the sheep pen.
It's 32 F as I type which was the forecast. I took one of my row covers and strung it over the peppers in the now mostly empty greenhouse. Today the peppers will all get picked and the plants pulled. The tobacco will have to come out as well.
Snow is inbound so today is my day to get this shit done. I have to harvest everything, pull all the plants, pull the plastic and fold it, coil all the irrigation lines, I have to shut down irrigation for a client this morning, make sure all the plants are in that need to be, I have to get the tank heater ready for the sheep and their extra water tubs removed, the birds should get a heat lamp to their coop, and I need the small heater to the cooler to keep it from freezing in the next week. Ugg.... so much to do in only a short window of light.
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