Freeze

It is not unusual to have a hard frost in May and that is what we got last Sunday night. I have learned to keep the most frost sensitive transplants like peppers, tomatoes, squash, okra, basil and melons in pots by the house until the 4th week in May or the first week in June.

Several years I got enthusiastic about planting tomato plants early and they got frozen. I had a back-up set of plants to replace them with. But I have learned my lesson. I just don't transplant early to the field.

If you keep those early transplants in pots they grow just as well and you can cover or protect thousands of plants by bringing them inside or covering them.

I was talking to some of the growers at the farmers market and they reported.

Frost Free vegetables

I am writing this at 2:00 am this morning. I was a little concerned that it might hit the freezing point over night.

You know you live in Minnesota when you have 30's the first of June.

I put a calibrated freezer thermometer out on the picnic table and the temps were at 36 degrees and dropping.

So what to do...

First Frost

This morning marks what usually is near the first of fall, it's a month delayed, but has still arrived. The first frost (that damaged produce) came this morning. But, while the frost does damage some things, it makes others altogether sweeter. The frosty grass, pumpkins, and windshields reminded me of a poem that I had to memorize in my early elementary years. The poem is by James Whitcomb Riley...

WHEN the frost is on the punkin and the fodder's in the shock,
And you hear the kyouck and gobble of the struttin' turkey-cock,
And the clackin' of the guineys, and the cluckin' of the hens,
And the rooster's hallylooyer as he tiptoes on the fence;
O, it's then the time a feller is a-feelin' at his best,
With the risin' sun to greet him from a night of peaceful rest,
As he leaves the house, bareheaded, and goes out to feed the stock,
When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder's in the shock.

They's something kindo' harty-like about the atmusfere
When the heat of summer's over and the coolin' fall is here
Of course we miss the flowers, and the blossoms on the trees,
And the mumble of the hummin'-birds and buzzin' of the bees;
But the air's so appetizin'; and the landscape through the haze
Of a crisp and sunny morning of the airly autumn days
Is a pictur' that no painter has the colorin' to mock— When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder's in the shock.

The husky, rusty russel of the tossels of the corn,
And the raspin' of the tangled leaves as golden as the morn;
The stubble in the furries—kindo' lonesome-like, but still
A-preachin' sermuns to us of the barns they growed to fill;
The strawstack in the medder, and the reaper in the shed;
The hosses in theyr stalls below—the clover overhead!—
O, it sets my hart a-clickin' like the tickin' of a clock,
When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder's in the shock.

Then your apples all is gethered, and the ones a feller keeps
Is poured around the cellar-floor in red and yaller heaps;
And your cider-makin's over, and your wimmern-folks is through
With theyr mince and apple-butter, and theyr souse and sausage too!...
I don't know how to tell it—but ef such a thing could be
As the angels wantin' boardin', and they'd call around on me—
I'd want to 'commodate 'em—all the whole-indurin' flock—
When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder's in the shock.

Borrowed Time

I can't remember the last season where we hadn't had at least some touch of frost by this time in the season. The late season frost sensitive crops are always a little bit of a roll of the dice and usually don't make it before they are killed or damaged by frost. For example we just started picking a beautiful row of french fillet beans and I have another one staged to start next week. I did not really expect to harvest these beans, they were more for soil building, but hey we will take the windfall.

We are still harvesting a basil in bountiful quantities. Basil and Okra are two of the most frost sensitive of the garden plants and they are yet untouched. Cherry tomatoes and peppers. Several more weeks of the best of summer.

The flip side of this discussion is we can hardly wait for the first frost kissed Brussels sprouts and those sweet sweet candy carrots. Leeks, broccoli, and kale are all improved by the fall cold.

This again reinforces my premise that the averages of weather are just a string of extremes that meet in the middle. At least this year has stacked up that way, snow every weekend in April with a massive break all the records snow the first week in May. See my post on Once in a Blue Snow.