Russell Steven Powell

Peppers, dry point, 8×5

EXPECT SOME GOOD BARGAINS in pumpkins over the next week. September’s rains seem to have helped with size, and it looks to be a strong crop.

The sweet corn, now plowed in, was excellent this year, lasting well into October.

Potatoes remain steady. They keep a low profile but are always in demand. Only the gleanings are left now, and the winter ground cover is greening up most of the fields.

Tobacco looks strong, rebounding nicely from last year’s failed crop. It’s been hanging to dry for six weeks or more and is now being bundled up for shipping.

It was a middling year for cucumbers. There was a lot of activity through midsummer, but the later fields were left to rot, unharvested.

The jury is out on onions. They have been dug up and lie clustered in rows traversing the fields. They are on the small side. They are being left out; to dry perhaps, or will they, too, be left behind?

There’s enough butternut squash for the next millennium. Good stuff beautifully grown, like the pumpkins, and easy to cultivate like the other vines. But they can’t bring much return at that volume.

It’s been an outstanding year for cabbage so far, with several fields of green, purple, and curly Asian still to be harvested. The low, clustered rows of soft blues, dark reds and bright greens are harder to find but just as impressive as the foliage.