What Hath the High Tunnel Done?

As we continue our week focusing on the vote for the Dream Big/Grow Here grant contest, we thought we'd share a little bit about what the current high tunnel has done for us this year.  But, first - a plug - please remember to take the link above and vote for us.  You may vote each day this week.  Our thanks!

So....what hath the high tunnel done for us lately?

Green Beans
It's a recurring theme this year.  The field green beans didn't like the start to the season.  So, we planted more in the high tunnel.  It's only two 60 foot double rows.  But - 327 pounds of green beans later...

All we can say is that this was a really positive result for a crop that both of us love to eat.  We've known since our first try with beans in 2010 that this was a pretty good use.  But, I'm not sure we realized it could do this much for us.

Snack Tomatoes
Some people call them 'salad-size' tomatoes.  But, we like to think of them as the reward for the person who picks up the share each week.  We fully expect that many of these never make it home to the kitchen counter!  These are a great size for us because they are big enough to make picking reasonable.  But, they are small enough for people to snack on them.

Green Zebra

We've been able to pull in over 1400 of these beauties from 20 plants in the high tunnel this year.  The first fruit was consumed on July 18 (no, that one didn't make it to the CSA distribution - sorry) and they are beginning to fade now that we are at October 8.  And, the real winners are Wapsipinicon Peach (over 100 per plant) and Red Zebra (over 90 per plant).

Peppers
Yet another disaster had the sting taken from it because we had this building to work a solution.  The field peppers had their problems, but the peppers in the high tunnel have done just fine.  They love the desert-like conditions.  Perhaps the thing that has impressed us the most is the beautiful fruit just ripening on our Marconi Reds.  It takes a perfect season in the field to get a good crop of these.  But, they taste so good, we keep growing them.  Sadly, we only have 2 plants in the high tunnel of these - but they represent the overall success peppers have had there.

a Marconi Red plant

Melons
We keep experimenting to see what varieties think the high tunnel is nice.  We tried Sakata Sweet because is supposed to climb well.  It did.  But, we weren't terribly pleased with the fruit.  There was so little of the flesh to eat on these that we'll probably pass next year.  On the other hand, Minnesota Midget showed it could climb well enough and produce well enough for us to consider it next year.  We only planted 10 feet of melons and still managed to get a decent number of fruit (45).

Cucumbers
Well, ok, not everything has to be about a crop failing elsewhere and the high tunnel stepping in and filling in.  In this case, the high tunnel cucumbers simply piled on.  But, it was still good to learn what works for this crop.  Twenty row feet of Cool Breeze netted 383 fruit.  Ok, that'll work. 

Eggplant
Four Pintung Long plants.  Forty fruit.  Ok, then.  It's a bit under our expectation for this variety for a season (typically we want about 14).  But, these went in late, so we forgive them.

Others
We also planted some basil, rosemary, french tarragon, thyme and some carrots during the summer session in the high tunnel.  It's amazing how much we can do in there.  And, we very much believe a diverse crop base in the building will keep things healthier.

Remember Spring?
I've been focusing on the Summer crops, but do you remember what we were able to do with Spring crops?  Over 350 heads of lettuce, 69 heads of pok choi, over 125 kohlrabi, over 200 bunches of kale and over 100 bunches of chard.  That doesn't even include a mention of the yummy spinach.