Farm News- August 30, 2012

Hello Folks,

It’s been another week of beautiful weather! The only caveat is that we are beginning to get a little dry again and could use some rain. It looks like we may get a bit on Monday but after that there’s not much in the forecast. We are still transplanting fall brassicas and if there is no rain within a few days of setting them out, we need to water them by hand; not a small task with thousands of plants. I am also direct seeding dozens of different crops that would benefit from some moisture to help them germinate. It seems we may have to start moving the sprinklers around the field again.

This week marks the end of the first half of the season and I think we may have hit the high point in the distribution last week, at least in terms of number of items shipped. We certainly reached the peak in tomato production as many of the early varieties have succumbed to disease. We should still have tomatoes for several weeks, but in smaller quantities. As we head into the fall, greens will once again become abundant and we will begin to cycle through the cabbage family crops. We have bok choy which will be ready in 2-3 weeks and a planting of broccoli that should begin to head in 3-4 weeks. For now we have overcut the kale and the chard and will need to let it recover and re-grow. For this week we have some tatsoi that was transplanted into white plastic mulch beds as an experimental attempt to have more greens during the summer months. We will be offering it as a choice with dandelion greens and purslane. Purslane is a wild succulent plant that is high in Omega-3 and full of other great anti-oxidants. It can be eaten raw in salads or cooked (with onions and tomatoes is one way), but has a mucilaginous quality similar to okra when cooked. We continue to have lots of peppers and are beginning to see a lot more ripe fruit- beautiful red, yellow, orange and chocolate colored gems for your eating and visual pleasure. On the bean front we are into heavy production on our heirloom Rattlesnake beans (also called Preacher beans down south, if that name scares you any less!). These are a pole bean with beautiful purple streaking and are wonderfully sweet and tender.

The share for this week will be:
Boston lettuce, choice of tatsoi, dandelion or purslane, eggplant, peppers, tomatoes, beans, melons or watermelons, carrots, red onions, white potatoes and choice of an herb.

Enjoy!
Farmer John