Farm News – August 27, 2015
Hello Everyone! On Thursday of last week a series of storms delivered nearly 2 ½ inches of rain. This is, of course, more than we really wanted at one time, especially since most of it came in very heavy downpours. I had just seeded radishes into very dry soil the day before and I was worried they would be washed off the beds, but they seem to be popping up okay. We were also in the process of preparing more beds for planting and the rain came before we had a chance to till in the fertilizer we had applied, so some of it was probably washed off the beds. I’m not complaining though — I know that many areas to our east that have been very dry did not receive any rain. And then there’s the Plainfield / Scotch Plains area that had significant road damage from flooding caused by a stalled storm that dropped 6” of the wet stuff in just a few hours!
Beans are back and about to be bountiful (don’t call me alliterate). Watch for a fall volunteer schedule soon and come out and help us with the picking. We could really use the assistance, otherwise my crew spends days on end on this task and we fall behind on other important work. Tomatoes are also super abundant; we will be trying to pick and ship as many as we can this week. So if you were thinking about making some sauce, this might be the week. All the rain has caused disease in the tomato crop despite my efforts to control it with organic sprays. We should still have tomatoes for many weeks but the volume will begin to decrease.
A few groups received lettuce last week; those that did not will get it this week. We are holding off on the cabbage this week and hope to have sufficient broccoli and cauliflower for everyone. All of you received one or the other a couple of weeks back, so we will be trying to get broccoli to those who received cauliflower and vice versa. The peppers are ripening prolifically so you will be seeing more yellows and reds in the coming weeks. And don’t pass up the chocolate peppers — they’re delicious! We have tubs and tubs of carrots that are too small to bunch and also many that have been nibbled on my mice and meadow voles. We will be cutting off the bitten bit and bagging the babies for your root crop this week. Remember the skin is the most nutritious part, and try to prep them by scrubbing, because the small ones will be a pain to peel.
The share for this week will be: red potatoes, green beans, carrots, tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, lettuce, choice of fennel or celery, broccoli or cauliflower, red onions, melon or watermelon, zucchini, choice of herb (parsley, chives, lemon basil, marjoram, and savory)
The fruit share for this week will be nectarines and Ginger Gold apples.
Enjoy! Farmer John
