We have had a frustrating Broccoli season so far this year. The season, which runs from October through March, opened with a bang due to the unusually hot weather. Broccoli heads grow bigger and faster when it's hot, and we were struggling to keep up with harvest. The plants also need more water, which makes harvest trickier as we can't irrigate while we're picking.
In early November, the weather did a 180. The cold nights were a huge shock to the crop, causing later plantings to almost stop growing completely. We went from harvesting 4 days a week to only once or twice, and getting far less broccoli. The weeks leading up to Thanksgiving are normally peak Broccoli season for us, but we weren't even able to harvest enough for all our CSA boxes for the holiday.
At this point, we've had an entire month of much colder than average nights -- it was 31 this morning. That has kept the Broccoli growing at a slow crawl despite the record warmth we've been having during the day. Were hoping to start a new planting this week, but it is still not ready. So once again, we are alternating which box sizes get Broccoli. Last week it was in the M boxes, this week it's in S and L. At some point we hope to make it a regular feature of the boxes every week once again, but I don't know when that will happen.
Most people would assume that Spinach would suffer in the cold weather even more than Broccoli. Yet this tender green has proven itself the single most cold-hardy crop that we grow. Over the years, we've found varieties of spinach that can be frozen solid at 6 a.m. on a cold morning, then thaw out and resume growing a few hours later. Not only does the cold not damage the leaves, it makes them even more sweet and tender. In the winter, we often harvest the same spinach field two or even three times as the leaves regrow from the roots.
The biggest threat to our winter spinach is usually excessive rain, which can cause the leaves to get moldy. That has certainly not been a problem this year. It may be one upside to the crazy dry fall we've had.