Farm News- September 4, 2008

Hello Everyone,

I hope you all enjoyed a pleasant Labor Day. There won’t be much of a holiday for us here on the farm. With a market and deliveries to prepare for, a day off just isn’t possible, although we will try to knock off a little earlier than usual. Dry conditions persist with only a brief tease of a shower on Friday evening. We are all getting tired of moving the sprinklers around, but it’s the only way to keep moving forward with the transplanting and seeding. We are almost finished with the transplanting but I will continue to sow seeds though most of September. As it turned out we had enough watermelons to ship to all groups last week, although the watermelon harvest is now essentially over, thanks to the crows. This week we will be sending mostly cantaloupes, galia and Korean melons, and a few honey dews. Tomatoes continue to ripen abundantly but most of the plants in the field have a serious blight problem, so production will probably start to drop off rapidly in a couple of weeks. I am spraying them with an organic fungicide called Sporan which contains essential oils of rosemary and clove, but it may already be too late, so enjoy them while they last! The share for this week will be: French fingerling potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, egg- plant, white onions, garlic, zucchini, melons, lettuce, string beans, choice of cherry tomatoes or ground cherries, and choice of an herb.

Enjoy!
Farmer John