Farm News- September 11, 2008

Hey Folks!

Well, we finally received the much needed rain that we’ve been waiting on. A little over 2” fell overnight this past Saturday. I had pretty much known that our best chance for a good soaking would be from a hurricane, but I dreaded the potential damage of high winds and severe downpours that can accompany this type of storm. Fortunately we had very little high wind and the rain although heavy at times was mostly a good steady shower. I rode the tractor planting as many seeds as I could on Friday ahead of the storm.

Now with the ground well drenched the seeds should start to germinate rapidly and the thousands of recently set out plants should begin to grow vigorously. Best of all we get a break from moving sprinklers around 3 times a day.

We are still heavy on Rattlesnake beans, although I think the quality has gone down a bit, mostly due to the dry conditions. The plants had also stopped flowering, but now with adequate soil moisture should begin producing again. We also have a crop of yellow wax beans coming on; they were flowering heavily and should be ready to pick for next week. We also have Edamame soybeans and lima beans that should be ready in 2 or 3 weeks. We are still harvesting melons; now more honey dews (some of these are orange) and canary melons, but still a few cantaloupes and Galias. There is also an ivory fleshed variety known as Ananas melons which are extremely sweet and delicious. And we still have lots of tomatoes! The share for this week will be: Red potatoes, peppers,tomatoes, eggplant, red onions, lettuce, Rattlesnake beans, carrots, choice of red or green cabbage, melons, choice of cherry tomatoes or ground cherries, and choice of an herb.

Enjoy!
Farmer John