“There’s frost on the ground” whispered my husband in the early hours of the morning. I was still half asleep and didn’t pay much attention to his observation. It wasn’t until I stepped outside that I saw those small white crystals clinging to the grass in my front yard. While I wanted to go and check on the garden out back we were on our way out so I packed our winter coats and rushed out the door with my children.
We spent the morning exploring Covert Farms on a guided tour with farmer and owner Shelly Covert. The theme of the tour was making pizza and juice from scratch with farm ingredients. We explored the canopy of the fifty year old table grape, picked tomatoes and peppers and had our fill of strawberries. Shelly has a background in education which really shows through her ability to involve and interact with wide age range of children. It was our second time taking a guided tour at the farm and like last year my children enjoyed the experience. As you might suspect, we are not strangers to Covert Farms. Over the last couple months we have spent hours out there picking tomatoes, strawberries, blackberries, blueberries and peppers from their organic u-pick. Today was probably our last visit out at Covert Farms until Halloween or Christmas when they have special events.
When we returned home in the afternooon I went out to check on the garden. The zucchini plants were shrivelled and the basil had signs of frost damage. Everything seems to have survived. I peaked under the hoop housed and noticed that the Asian greens and parsnips were growing well. I even gather a few spinach leaves for our supper.