The temperatures were in the high sixties in Chickaloon on Sunday when Kendra Zamzow’s neighbor walked by. She warned Kendra that three of six weather models showed temperatures were going to go into the twenties on Monday night.
The neighbor, Allie Barker, operates Chugach Farms. It’s a market-garden on a few acres in Chickaloon. The farm is dotted with hoop houses, a seed house, and a greenhouse. It’s a model of permaculture farming. There are minimal commercial inputs. Even the power and heat are provided by sun, wind, and wood.
An early frost meant Barker had to make decisions on what to save and what to leave. And act. Immediately.
The onions and potatoes were fine. They were hanging in the drying house.
The garlic had been harvested and was drying in a small tent. Barker usually keeps the roots and tops intact and hangs the bulbs upside down to dry. She then brings them into a climate-controlled cool space. But last year much of the garlic rotted. That had never happened before. The wet weather last fall was probably the cause.
This year Barker had clipped the roots and most of the tops of the garlic. She had set the bulbs upside down next to blowing fans. But they weren’t finished drying. Now the garlic needed to be protected from the frost. It was too early to put them in the cool space. And the place where the potatoes were held was too humid.
Then there’s the tomatoes and squash. They filled a one hundred foot long hoop tunnel. It’s a jungle of hanging tomatoes intertwined with cucumbers. Squash lined one side with its massive leaves.
Barker spent years developing the best soil for the tomatoes. Her well water is high in calcium. This raises the pH of the soil. The higher pH locks up phosphorous. This makes it difficult for the plants to take up the mineral. She planted fava beans between the tomato plants to correct this. The fava bean plants help lower the soil pH. This releases the phosphorus that the plants need.
The fava beans had already been harvested. Each stem had been cut a few inches above the ground. The root system was left intact with its microbe and fungal community. The same tactic was applied to the tomato and squash plants. Leave the roots.
The tomatoes and squash needed to be harvested to save them from the frost. The bright flowers would be sacrificed. So many budding tomatoes and squash would never make it to market, never make it into salads, salsa, or succotash.
Barker and Zamzow got to work on Sunday. All the leaves of the tomato plants were snipped off, leaving only stems and fruit. The leaves were sent to the compost. The stems were cut near the base. The plants were taken to the greenhouse. The tomatoes would ripen on the naked vines.
Squash leaves were cut back, exposing zucchini, crookneck, butternut, and cousa gourds. The squashes were harvested. The leaves were left to decompose.
Compost, boron, rock dust, humic acid, and fulvic acid will be added to the soil along with a spray of molasses. The soil will be covered with landscape fabric. It will be teeming with earthworms in the spring.
On Monday morning temperatures dropped to near freezing. Rain fell, mixed with snow, and the snow line bounded lower down the mountains.
Outside the hoop tunnel, a small field of beets was unbothered by the temperature. The deeply colored beet greens are rich in vitamins and minerals. They are holding on a little longer.
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Kendra Zamzow reported this Page Two article and yours truly, Lee Henrikson produced it. If you have an idea for a Page 2 topic, please email us at page2@radiofreepalmer.org.
That’s it for today and the news on Page Two on Tuesday, September 1, 2026.
Photo: Harvesting tomatoes, Allie Barker