Happy Autumnal Equinox

Village Farm Team,

Happy Autumnal Equinox! Though the meteorological system denotes September 1st as the beginning of the fall season, the astronomical system recognizes the first day of fall on the Autumnal Equinox which just so happens to be today. Daylight hours have been growing slightly shorter each day since the Summer Solstice. The Autumnal Equinox marks the halfway point to the Winter Solstice and is characterized by equal amounts of daylight and nighttime hours. The name “equinox” is a derivation of Latin words aequs and nox which mean equal and night respectively. During this time we’ll see a convergence of seasons on the farm as we harvest the last of our summer crops and begin shifting our focus on cool season crops like brassicas and root vegetables.

We started our next succession of brassicas in the greenhouse, this time adding a few different varieties of mustard greens and cabbages to the mix. We also started a few different varieties of Swiss chard that should provide us with a rainbow of different colored stems. Swiss chard is not a brassica but rather a member of the same family as beets, Amaranthaceae. The celosia (cockscomb) flowers we have planted in one of our boxes (pictured above) are in that same family as well.

We noticed last week that a couple of rows of our zucchini were infected with mosaic virus. This virus is aphid-borne and is not harmful to humans. It causes yield losses and defects on the fruit in addition to discoloration in the leaves but it does not cause the fruit to rot. We removed all of the affected plants but not to worry because our very last succession of zucchini for the season is healthy and just starting to yield fruit. We will not be planting more zucchini until next spring so make sure to get your fill while you can!