This is the month of giving thanks! This is your last chance to shut off and drain your sprinkler systems. If you haven’t done it yet, you will have some broken pipes for certain. It’s not too late to plant your bulbs, onions, and garlic, and seed your wildflowers. Cut back your perennials, and tie up your shrubs and trees. Visit your local nurseries for fall specials! It’s a great time to put in native plants and finish your landscaping before winter sets in. All the Farmer’s Markets in our area are now closed; the closest ones open during the winter are Auburn and Chico on Saturdays.
What you will see coming to the Truckee/Tahoe Area:
Vegetables: The foothills/CSAs should be providing herbs; butternut, acorn, banana, and spaghetti squashes; pumpkins; gourds; and eggplant. Cool season leafy greens like arugula, lettuces, cabbage, chard, collards, broccoli, cauliflower, and kale should appear regularly from the valley and coastal areas. Fall potatoes and onions should persist through November with southern California sweet potatoes for Thanksgiving. Heirloom and cherry tomatoes should hang on, along with fall garlic and peppers. Local tomatoes will start dropping off and be coming in from southern California and Baja.
Fruits & Nuts: Fresh almonds are ready to go along with walnuts and chestnuts. November is harvest time for kiwis in the foothills and Chico/Gridley area. You will also see avocados (Hass mostly) from San Luis Obispo south, persimmons (Fuyu and Hachiya), and pomegranates from northern Sacramento Valley. Thompson seedless grapes should persist. Apples are in prime time along with Bartlett, Bosc, and Asian Pears. ‘Tis the season for citrus:, local (Auburn-Sac. Valley) Satsuma mandarins begin, along with Southern California Navels and Valencia oranges. Grapefruits are still coming in from Texas, but local lemons will appear in November. Strawberries will continue from Watsonville/Salinas.
What you won’t see: The hot season crops are about gone: no more melons, corn, squash, blueberries, some varieties of blackberries, cucumbers (lemon & pickling), and most zucchini, summer squash, and local beans. Local tomatoes are done, along with late season peaches, apricots, nectarines, plums, and pluots. Forget about asparagus and artichokes until next year.
Truckee/Tahoe Plantings: For those of you bold enough to tackle our climate, here are some suggestions:
Hoop Houses/Greenhouse: Get ready to deal with snow! You will have to keep the snow off of them so they don’t collapse. Seed spinach, arugula, kale, collards, and lettuces along with establishing your starts of thyme, taraggon, oregano, mint, etc. Put your herb pots on sunny window sills for a winter treat.
Sierra Valley Farms: Down to a trickle of beets and carrots for restaurants. We put in our garlic and horseradish, and begin seeding our greenhouses with micro-greens for the winter restaurants around the Tahoe/Truckee area.
Let me leave you with this thought for November:
A satisfied person does not know what a hungry one feels.
~ Fulani
~ Gary Romano owns Sierra Valley Farms, which sits on some of his family’s original 3,600-acre ranch in Beckwourth. sierravalleyfarms.com.
