Finally Fall

Fall has finally arrived at the Hemingway Land Project Farm. Last weekend with the coming of October we experienced our first frost. We were able to save the spinach and lettuce by bundling the lot in old blankets.

Spaghetti Squash Unwrapping

Like a kid on Christmas morning, I sat down in the garden to open the preciously wrapped spaghetti squash. With a grand total of three surviving squash, I have been carefully protecting our small crop with row covers to ensure their survival. Unfortunately these squash were just planted as an afterthought. The bumper crop of squash was planted in an area we now refer to as the "dead zone". An area in which even the weeds refused to grow. Sadly this year will not yield the wealth of varied squash we were expecting.

As I began unwrapping the squash the aptly named squash bugs detected our vulnerability and rushed to devour the rind of the poor vegetable. At this point I took great delight in squashing each and everyone of these little munchers, watching gleefully as the exploded yellow and green guts covered the garden leaves.

The Fall Garden

This year we planted a fall garden. Basically a do over garden for some of our earlier failures. A cabbage and pea reprieve. We planted three different varieties of peas with the hope that one will flourish. We also discovered that using grass clippings could save us a fortune on mulch. The grass clippings may not be as aesthetically pleasing but they are absolutely free.

Jiffy Pop

This year in addition to sweet corn we decided to grow a small patch of pop corn. At this point we have harvested the ears and now we will let them dry for a few weeks. I can't wait to test the kernels at the end of this week. Hopefully they will be dry enough to pop for the Landlocked Film Fest.

Successfully mastered broccoli

Last summer we had trouble growing our broccoli. Started from seeds in the garden, the broccoli never realized it's full potential. However, this year we have successfully grown two broccoli plants and will be consuming the fruits of our labor tonight for dinner. I'm thinking roasted broccoli over pasta would celebrate this most delicious veggie success.

Harvesting the Summer Wheat

Papa Steve agreed to grow organic wheat for our project this year. He grew a few acres of wheat under no spray conditions. Papa Steve had also just purchased a new combine and offered everyone a ride in his buddy seat. The wheat ground up beautifully and made superb bread.

Papa Steve will be saving three hundred pounds of wheat for our two families and selling the rest as animal feed. While I'm happy that he will recoup some of his money on the wheat, I feel that it is a shame to see such high quality stuff sold as feed.

Corn and Beans

The sweet corn is taller then the two of us and has began to developed small ears. However, I still could not wait for the corn to mature and bought some wonderful sweet corn from our neighbors. Instead of corn we have zucchini, greens beans and

peas ready to harvest.