Farm News- July 24, 2008

Hi Folks,

Hot enough for you? It was a rough week for my workers and me, trying to work in this heat. And most of the plants, even the heat loving ones, don’t really thrive above 90 degrees. It’s been dry as well, with several promised thunderstorms failing to materialize; we haven’t had a good rain in several weeks. At this writing it is just beginning to rain a bit, so hopefully my thirsty plants will get a good drenching. I just finished planting some string beans so a good soaking rain is just the ticket to germinate them quickly. I have finished framing the new cooler and hope to have it up and running by the end of the week. I imagine it will quickly be filled, as there are several thousand heads of lettuce and cabbage that will need to be harvested ASAP. We will be including beets in the share this week, some will be the regular red type, but there will also be white beets and an Italian heirloom called Chioggia. These are also known as Candy cane beets and are white with red rings inside. We will also be sending radicchio, mostly of the trevisio type, which has the form of a romaine lettuce. We will be shipping sweet onions again this week as we have quite an abundance of them, and as previously mentioned they don’t store well. We have come to the end of the pea season, with only the snow peas continuing to flower and produce. The green beans are full of flowers and tiny beans and I expect to begin picking by next week. The cucumbers are beginning to come in as well, although not in sufficient quantities for all groups, so we will begin a rotation with the summer squash over the next few weeks. The share for this week will be: Romaine lettuce (green or red), radicchio, summer squash or cucumbers, Swiss chard, sweet onions, cabbage, garlic, beets, and choice of 2 herbs (cilantro, parsley or basil.).

Enjoy!
Farmer John