The days are shorter, and the nights are cooler, which means we are approaching Spring bulb planting time. Yes, tulips, daffodils, anemones (technically a corm), ranunculus (also a corm), and many other Spring bulb flowers will go into the ground in the coming weeks to bloom in the Spring. They require nice cool nights to grow a strong root system and then burst forth in the Spring. You can use a lasagna layering gardening method to provide blooms throughout the season, planting the different bulbs right on top of each other, like in the picture, to provide you with an array of colors and blooms throughout the season.
At Moonstruck Farms, we are expecting all 11,000 tulip bulbs to arrive this week. We will be storing these in our cool room to provide additional chill hours before planting in the coming weeks. We will also have some of these available for purchase, providing our community with the same high-quality bulbs for their gardens in a gorgeous array of colors. In addition, we will have a limited number of daffodils, paperwhite, and hyacinth bulbs available. While we await the arrival of the tulips, we are emptying the cool room of our stored apples, preparing not only our Apple Butter and Pear, Apple, and Cranberry Jam but also apple pie filling and applesauce that will be available at the market in the near future. We will also be bringing back our Mulled Wine/Cider kits since cool nights are in the forecast, and I am sure in just a matter of weeks, we will be starting those wood stoves up for the season. We are still waiting for our Pink Ladies, Honeycrisp, and Snapp Staymans to finish ripening on the trees, and we even have our late peaches due this month, though some look like they will be ready this week.
The Phelan Certified Farmers Market runs on Mondays in the Phelan Community Center parking lot from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. for the month of October. Still, with the time change, the market will switch to Winter Hours of 2 p.m. to 5 p.m., and when the temperatures drop, part of the market will move into the Phelan Community Center. Remember, the Phelan Farmers Market is a proud administrator of the Market Match grant, gifting up to $15 (until the end of December and then reverting to $10) in Free Fruits and Vegetables to EBT and P-EBT recipients utilizing their benefits at market. The Wrightwood Certified Farmers Market is every Friday from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. Yes, the hours have changed, and the Wrightwood Market is on Winter hours already. You can find the market in the Wrightwood Community Center parking lot.
