Garden Harvests Don't End With Cool Weather

French radishes by farm08

The kids have been back at school for a couple of months, half of the Halloween candy has been gobbled up, and now you're experiencing a great blast of cold fall weather. You might think that many a farmer's field would be a patch of bare brown ground by now, too.

But those who grow the hearty vegetables of fall are still tending to their leafy greens, root crops and other vegetables -- and some will keep doing so, even tucking sensitive plants under plastic or cloth to extend the season into December.

Many cool weather crops such as lettuce, arugula, spinach, chard and kale are in abundance, as are beets, carrots and salad and storage types of turnips. These plants can keep producing, even when hit with a few rounds of light frost. Some growers also rushed out to pick what would have been destroyed by the first major frost, preserving piles of peppers, beans, squash, sweet potatoes and even green tomatoes.

You'll find the farmers who persevere in all sorts of weather bundled up and ready to offer the fall vegetables you would like for hearty soups or roasting, plus meats, eggs and crafted goods at the Lawrence Farmers Market, continuing Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. at 8th and New Hampshire streets. The final day of the regular Saturday market is November 19, and the holiday market is Dec. 10.