“I profess, in the sincerity of my heart, that I have not the least personal interest in endeavoring to promote this necessary work, having no other motive than the public good of my country, by advancing our trade, providing for infants, relieving the poor, and giving some pleasure to the rich.”
—Jonathan Swift (1667-1745)
-A Modest Proposal

It may be that you find the content of the following proposal slightly absurd. I assure you that I write this proposal without a bit of the satire with which Mr. Swift penned his. For those not familiar with his satirical piece, he proposed the solution to the Irish famine and poverty of his time in the idea of brokering and eating children. I say to you with sincerity as well, “Eat those babies!” Before you threaten to string me up like pole beans, follow me back in time to my gardens in late August and let me illustrate the benefits of fall planting; see if you can’t be persuaded to agree.

Let’s find ourselves transported back to the closing swell of days in the 2006 growing season. We have enjoyed the countless benefits of fresh produce in our diet all spring and summer and felt the wonderful nutritional power that it provides. Our bodies have become accustomed to the enlivened sustenance from the back yard, and we sigh as we think of returning to the bland pickings offered by grocery stores.
During these days in late August, tomato patches become well colonized with blight and their production starts to diminish. Many greens bolt from summer’s heat, and winter squash starts to toughen up with encroaching cold nights.

It is at this point when many growers sorrowfully begin the start of fall clean up chores, while others leave the garden chaos to be killed off over the winter by Mother Nature’s seemingly never-weakening wrath. It is now that I propose you get your plot clean and amended and sow some seeds. Broadcast, row seed, transplant, whatever, but faithfully sow your favorite greens, lettuce, snow and field peas, carrots, cilantro, collards, cabbages, and the like. Some might find this madness, others a consideration, and to the already enlightened, gardening scripture.
You say, “No, the winter will kill our lettuce, greens, and such, long before a sizable and worthwhile harvest.” I say to you, “Nay” friend, “Nay.” Let us walk down this potential path and see what it has to offer. Jump forward with me now six weeks, to mid-October or even November. As garlic has begun to pop up, light frosts begin to kiss a now growing patch of lettuce and greens, and they hardly seem affected. So, “eat those babies!” Pick some of those tender baby greens, notice how sweet they are, and there is almost no bitterness. Eat the pea greens; magnificent, no? Try the carrots—mmm hmm, sugary. You can probably lightly pick this mixed patch, thinning as you go, through the end of November, if not later. Have you ever had such wonderful greens? They are tender, tasty, and nutritious; it is no wonder they are the mainstays of a gourmet salad. Have you ever imagined they could grow this late in the year? Go ahead, eat some more of those babies before we move on. Mmmmmm.

Now jump with me to mid-March. Fearfully you will say, “Look at our little patch of lettuce, greens, and such, they all have died, I have wasted my seeds.” Well, finger down into the deep mulch of straw that you threw down around them after you thinned the patch while making all those winter salads. See, there is still some life in those babies, the tiniest growth hanging on for spring. Hey, some of these over there in the really sunny spot still have leafy green goodness that can be picked for another small baby greens salad.

Jump forward with me now to the present. The jonquils have bloomed, the fruit blossoms have already busted, and you are probably already way behind your planned schedule for gardening activities this year; yes, it is only April! The little babies left to over-winter, without much protection, I may add, have blossomed into good-sized heads and plants, which dwarf spring-sown seeds and transplants. In fact, you’ve been eating homegrown salads every night for almost a month, and I bet you can eat greens every night for the rest of the spring. Hey, they even took that last “Killing Freeze” better than most. Oh, and that mulch really is suppressing the weeds well. Sure, the greens are getting more bitter as they’ve gotten older, but a lot of that is probably from these unusual early heat waves. They still have that winter sweetness, and you have spring babies ready for transplanting, so pick enough for a few nights. And, grab some of that baby endive, beet greens, comfrey and chickweed.

Well, there you go, you now know that you can have more fresh food faster from your backyard than ever before, simply because of fall planting. If you value fresh produce as the most important component of a healthy diet, and the fact that it just tastes better, then you, like myself and others, may choose to pick up the load of work we challenge ourselves to do in the continued blissful, and sometimes disappointing, adventure into subsistent food production. Don’t underestimate the benefits of fall planting, as it dramatically increases your harvest and makes all that hard work you do each summer somehow seem more worthwhile. Besides, there are fewer weeds and pests in the wintertime to compete for the eats.

Consider ordering your greens in the fall this year, or order extra now if you are still ordering for this spring. Given the heat gain, with or without global warming, it is easy to over-winter many different food plants in a sunny spot without protection.

Best luck this season and the next. I hope you will remember my “August Proposal” this fall, and that you will choose to experiment with fall planting so you too can “eat those babies.”

Mike Fortune has been an organic grower in Western North Carolina for six years. He runs Green Hill Urban Farm and is an advocate of urban farming. Through the Urban Farm Network, he works with a collective of property owners with lands inside city limits or just on the cusp. He grows mixed fruit and vegetables for retail and wholesale and can be reached at envirrhyment@gmail.com.

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