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  • From: Home Grown Kansas! <hgkansas AT sbcglobal.net>
  • To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Post-Harvest Handling of Fall Greens
  • Date: Fri, 17 Nov 2006 07:00:25 -0800 (PST)

Hello,
We are located in Wichita, Kansas and are having an extended fall season due to wonderful weather.  We usually have greens up to the middle of December with the use of floating row cover. 
 
What we have noticed is that cool weather tends to dry the greens out.  Greens, in our experience love to have water sprayed on them.  We lightly water, overhead, prior to harvesting or the day before to perk them up.  Don't water too much, just enough to get the greens wet - too much will start the plants to yellow. 
 
Cucumbers generally grow very well in Kansas.  Our best experience with cucumbers is on light or sandy soil.  We grow a variety called Marketmore that is well received at our markets.  We have tried others in our 16 years, but Marketmore has performed the best in our area.  As for pickling cucumbers we like a variety called Little Leaf. 
 
Elzie & Pat Randleas
Home Grown Kansas! LLC
Wichita, Kansas
 

Allan Balliett <aballiett AT frontiernet.net> wrote:
Folks!

As you can imagine, our fall garden this fall has received PLENTY of
moisture. It's also never really been cold enough this fall to end
the harvest of even crops as sensitive as chard. For this reason, for
the first time in years, we've been delivering fall produce to metro
buying clubs.

A glich I'm running into, however, is that produce seems to wilt
faster after harvest in cold weather than it does in hot weather!
Radishes are an excellent example. Harvested at 45 degrees and washed
and placed in a warehouse bin, much as we would do when it's
90degrees in the garden, the radish tops have wilted horribly. Chard
and beet tops follow a similar cycle. As does mesculn.

I'm wondering if I need to hydrate soft green tops after cold weather
harvest to keep them turgid.

As you can imagine, we do not have a produce cooler and, in the
regular growing season, never feel a need for it because we harvest
and deliver within a couple of hours.

Any suggestions?

-Allan Balliett
Fresh and Local CSA
Shepherdstown WV
Serving Washington, DC-area
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