Weather Update

As if hurricanes, heat waves and nonstop rain weren’t enough, let’s add snow in October! I’m not quite sure what else Mother Nature could throw our way all in one season! A frost is typical around Halloween, but three inches of snow is unheard of. We were expecting cold temperatures Saturday night, so Friday afternoon Molly (with the help of her dad), harvested what was left of the eggplant and summer squash and covered everything else in white row cover. We did all that we could, shy of pulling an all-nighter harvesting everything in the field! The weather report called for chance of snow Saturday night. On Saturday morning I was eating my breakfast and watched the rain turn to snow at 10am. Suddenly nervous about our preparations, I went to the farm, in full raingear, long johns and winter hat to clothespin holes in our row cover and put the one remaining piece of fabric on our most precious bed- the lettuce heads! Some crops will fare just fine in fact a few will even improve with the cold temperatures. Kale and carrots for instance become sweeter with a frost. Others, I am more worried about. For example the bok choi, tat soi, baby greens and lettuce are less hardy. It’s now Sunday afternoon and I’ve been watching the thermometer like a hawk all weekend. I’m hoping that because it didn’t dip below 32, we might be in luck and the air temperature wasn’t quite cold enough to burst the cell walls of the plants. I’m fearing that because the snow was so heavy it may have pulled the row cover, which was propped up by hoops, low onto the plants, letting the cold snow rest on (and maybe crush) the leaves of the plants. On Monday morning we will see!