Fall and Winter Crops for Market Farms
One thing I’ve been really keen to do here at Brimwood Farm is to extend the season as much as possible. Of course, the bountiful harvests come in the summer when all those toms, cucumbers, radishes and salad crops are thriving. But fall, with the onset of cooler temperatures and thick, creamy soups, brings the opportunity for a shift in crops.
Though I’ve been growing beets and kale through the summer, now is the perfect time of year to keep harvesting and selling these vegetables. I personally believe people also start looking for different foods; the summery BBQ salads make way for roasted beets and leafy spinach.
At the beginning of the year I laid out 10 crops I wanted to grow, harvest and sell this year and achieved most. However, I’m planning on trying to keep the honesty box running for as long as possible.
BEETS
Despite almost being October, there is still opportunity to grow beets. I sowed my latest batch at the start of Sep and have already got some lovely little plug plants. Beetroot are very hardy when it comes to frost, and the roots will continue to grow and bulk up the longer in the ground. In addition, whilst cold snaps will kill plants off, beets will happily sit in the ground until you’re ready to harvest them.
LETTUCE
Frosts will kill off summer lettuces. I’m growing a salad bowl red variety which will all shrivel and die once the cold snap starts. However, under cover, they will survive. And do even better if you sow winter varieties; something you can do now. To extend my season, I’ve sown around 600 salad bowl seedlings that I’ll transplant in to the polytunnel. The remaining warmth of the year should grow them into nice plants which I can grow and sell as head lettuce over the coming winter.
SPINACH
Spinach is a cold weather crop and really doesn’t do well when it’s warm, often going to seed quickly and producing little leaf. Again, sowing spinach now will give it a good head start. In a polytunnel it’ll happily sit all winter and you can harvest as needed. And then as soon as spring arrives, it’ll shoot off for an early harvest.
CHARD
Chard is extremely hardly to the cold and can easily survive a hard frost. Whilst small leaves are used in salads over the summer months, large leaves and thick stems make the perfect addition to soups in fall and winter.
KALE
Like chard, kale is super hardy. In fact, once a frost has hit, the leaves become even sweeter. And with those colder temperatures, butterflies and caterpillars won’t be a problem.
Winter prevents plant growth due to the cold and the shorter hours of daylight. Many crops that are hardy simply won’t grow near leaves but will happily sit around and wait for warmer weather when they burst into life. To maintain harvestable crops you therefore need to grow big enough plants before the winter that you can then sell. But with any luck I should be able to keep the honesty stand stocked with some form of eggs and vegetables until early next year.