August 11, 2011

Hi Folks,

It was another good weather week here on the farm. We received an inch and a quarter of rain on Saturday night. We are looking at a lot of chances for more rain from scattered and isolated thunderstorms during the week ahead. The rain has been very helpful for both germination of the many direct seeded crops I have been planting as well as for rooting of the thousands of brassica family crops we have been transplanting. Hopefully these won’t drop too much more precipitation as the ground is quite saturated now, and persistent wet conditions can exacerbate disease problems in the tomatoes and other crops.

We are still low on greens; the kale has been decimated by flea beetles and the chard was over cut and suffering from the dry conditions. We are working on renovating the spring chard planting now that the ground is moist, with a good cultivation and a top dressing of fertilizer. We should be able to start cutting again in a week or two. I have also planted more chard for fall production. We are also low on herbs, having overcut the basil and the parsley and with other herbs flowering heavily. The next planting of lettuce is ready just in time, so we will be able to continue our unbroken streak of having lettuce in the shares every week.

Herbs and cooking greens notwithstanding, the word for this week is abondanza. Tomatoes and melons are ripening prolifically and the second planting of squash is coming in heavy. We have a large assortment of different types of melons; one is a long yellow fruit with white stripes that looks like a delicata squash. It is not, it is a Korean melon. Please don’t cook the melons! We have lots of cucumbers, peppers and eggplant as well. We are still a bit short on string beans but that should change by next week.

We are harvesting small quantities of some “experimental” crops such as okra and artichokes. Watch for these as extras in the coming weeks along with tomatillos if you are a fan of salsa verde.

The share for this week will be:
Boston or oak leaf lettuce, carrots, summer squash, cucumbers, eggplant, peppers, tomatoes, melons or watermelons, white potatoes, garlic, string beans and yellow onions.

Enjoy!
Farmer John