3 Trends for FALL MARKETS

In much of the U.S. and Canada, July and early August are when you plan, and sometimes plant, fall crops. Pick the right varieties for fall, schedule your sowings and grow enough, and you can keep selling well past your first frost.

Here we look at three crops, beets, fennel, and kale, that are not only excellent for fall markets but also remain among the strongest trends in vegetables. A generous display of them will draw shoppers to your stand.

'Touchstone Gold' Beets

No wonder beets keep gaining fans: the root half of this two-in-one crop has great colors and shapes, sweet flavor and lots of nutrition, and cool fall weather makes beets sweeter and more colorful.

The other half is the greens. Beet tops may be red, green or both, and you can sell them on their own in bunches or attached to tender young roots. They're full of nutrients, in demand, and surprisingly hard for shoppers to find in many areas.

Sow beets directly about 8 weeks before hard frosts and freezes. They handle light frost, and row cover can keep the tops going even longer.

Hensley’s also carries pelleted beet seeds, which are much easier to sow with a precision seeder.

At market, turn the colorful roots toward shoppers, slice a few in half to show the inside, and mist them often so they stay glossy and bright.

'Orazio' Bulb Fennel

Fennel has a long history; the ancient Greeks and Romans prized it as both food and medicine.

Cooking shows and food blogs have brought bulb fennel back into fashion. Its gentle anise flavor and crunchy, celery-like texture are great raw in salads or with dips, and it can also be baked, roasted or sautéed.

You can grow fennel in spring or fall, but fall is best because cooling weather makes bolting less likely. Sow it before beets or kale, since it needs longer to mature, and be ready to cover it if frost comes early, because it is less frost tolerant than many fall crops. The hybrid 'Orazio' reliably makes large, even bulbs for higher yields overall.

Harvest bulbs young at 2½–3" across or let them mature to 4–5". Sell baby fennel in bunches or bags; full-size bulbs are usually sold loose with the fronds cut back. (Leaf fennels, grown as an herb or cut-flower filler, don't make sellable bulbs.)

'Red Russian' Kale

Like many greens, kale comes from a wild cabbage believed to have originated in Asia Minor, in what is now Turkey. In Britain during World War II, people were urged to grow kale because it was easy and supplied nutrients that rationed diets lacked.

Kale is popular today for its versatility, flavor and nutrition, and growers count it among the hardest workers of the fall and winter garden. It is very cold tolerant and in most places can be picked all winter from under snow or row cover, and certainly from a low or high tunnel. Plant plenty, since new growth slows as fall days shorten.

Kale varieties look so different from one another that they could pass for separate vegetables. 'Winterbor', the hardiest of the bunch, is green and curly. 'Toscano' has long, narrow, deeply savoyed dark green leaves. 'Red Russian' has smooth, flat, blue-green leaves tinged red, with purple stems.

Mixed bunches look great and get shoppers to try new types. Pair bulky 'Winterbor' with slimmer 'Toscano' for a full bunch, and add a little Red Russian for color and texture.

These vegetables keep growing in demand. Offer beets, kale and bulb fennel at fall markets to sell longer and win new customers.

Additional Resources

• See all our vegetables, herbs and flowers to sow in summer for fall harvest.
• Hensley’s Planting Calculator for Fall-Harvest Crops will help you time all your fall crops.