Farm News- September 23, 2010

Hi Folks,

We received a bit more rain this past week from the storm that passed through on Thursday. It wasn’t much, perhaps a quarter of an inch, nothing like the downpour experienced in the eastern part of the state and NYC. Fortunately we were also spared the high winds and hail that accompanied the storm in these areas. While still a little on the dry side, the fall crops look great and the most recent plantings are germinating nicely. The final summer squash patch is producing abundantly, so expect lots of zucchini and summer squash for the next few weeks. The beans too, are beginning to bear prolifically, although they are a bit slower to size up now as the days get shorter and the nights cooler. There weren’t enough to go around last week, so some groups did not receive them. Those who did got only a half pound. We will try to compensate for the inequity this week by sending larger quantities to those who were skipped last week. Eggplant production remains slow, so we remain in an every other week rotation. The tomato harvest has slowed to a trickle; we will try to include a few in the shares, but I can’t make any promises.

We have the wonderful Hakurei salad turnips available again. Remember that the tops are a good cooking green or can even be added raw to salads. The turnips can be cooked or eaten raw. Both the greens and the roots are of better quality in the fall than those of the early summer harvest. The Swiss chard is absolutely gorgeous right now and we will have spinach in the next week or two. The first large planting of fall broccoli should be starting to head up soon, so it should be in the shares within 2 weeks. The first of the fall lettuce crop is also still about 2 weeks away from being ready. Since it’s been so many weeks without lettuce, I decided to buy some from another local organic grower. Besides the corn, this will likely be the only veggie not grown on the farm to be included in the share.

The share for this week will be:
Boston lettuce, salad turnips, beans, peppers, Swiss chard, fingerling potatoes, garlic, summer squash, tomatoes?, eggplant?, and choice of an herb. The fruit share will be Bartlett pears and Kiwi berries.

Enjoy!
Farmer John