Getting Ready for the Market-ocalypse!

Tuesday September 26 2017

Even though we are in autumn now, the sun and the heat came by to say hello one last time this Tuesday!

Early Blight on Cherry tomatoes

 

During our usual walk about we assessed the terraces to see what is to be harvested for the market, and what is to be taken out because of the change of seasons, or disease.

Cucumber season is now over,  but there was enough greens for a few bags of salad blend.

The Cherry tomatoes are still producing despite the presence of early blight, and the nasturtiums bounced back very nicely after being infested with aphids in the summer. 

The Kale Trial: no data was taken from the kale trial this week.

Rep 1 is improving! This could be do to the cooler temperatures which kale can thrive in.

Rep 2 by the sunflowers is still pathetic, which isn’t surprising as they are so close to the sunflowers that can exude phytochemicals that can restrict the growth of other plants nearby.

Rep 3 looks like it has been hit with some powdery mildew near the base of some of the plants, and some plants were even starting to bolt, which is concerning at this time of the year.

  

Piper giving the melon a sniff

Stark preparing a breakfast snack for us all

Scalopini

Mike checking out the mystery squash

Arugula

Baby Kale

Nastursiums

The arugula on the terraces is doing very well! And the kale next to the arugula was harvested as baby kale to add to the salad blend, as well as mustard greens.

Piper and Will transplanting onions

Once the truck was packed up and off to the market the rest of the students transplanted some very sad looking onions, and we will all have to cross our fingers that they will survive the transplant!

Some weeding was done, as that is always needed, and then that was it!

The Market:

It was a race to the finish line on the terraces as always! The truck needs to get to the market site and have everything set up by noon, and as always (at this new location) it was a very busy start. Stark even said he had to fend off customers before the market opened like they were zombies in the Walking Dead!

Last weeks market broke the all time record in sales, unfortunately this week was not as successful as last week, but there are no complaints from anybody because this new location is so much more profitable then the previous location on campus.