Farm News – August 6, 2015
Hello Everyone, We had 2 rain events this past week; the first dropped .7 of an inch and the second .3”, so we received the 1 inch per week that is ideal. Both came just as I was about to head out on my seeding tractor to do some planting, so the timing was less than perfect, but hey, we need the rain. The second storm came with a gorgeous double rainbow, so that was adequate compensation for my frustration with not being able to seed. The heat wave will break soon, so all in all the weather continues to be copacetic.
Summer is officially in full swing this week with the arrival of the tomatoes. There will be just a few in the shares for this round but the quantities will be increasing steadily in the coming weeks. We will also offer a choice of cherry tomatoes or Ground cherries, aka goldenberries or Cape gooseberries. For you new folks, these are members of the solaneceous family; cousins of the tomatillo with a similar paper husk. Slip the fruit out of it’s wrapper and eat out of hand or add to salads. They are quite sweet and have a nutty and pineapple like flavor. They make great snacks for kids and keep well without refrigeration.
Melons have begun to ripen but not in huge quantities just yet. I expect we will begin shipping them next week. We will be taking a break from beans and summer squash for a few weeks until the next crop begins to come in. I was delayed in making the second planting by all the rainy weather in June. There are a lot of eggplant hanging on the plants but we will take a pause to let them size up. We will send a few as extras this week along with tomatillos, hot peppers, and some kale.
I have promising/forewarning that cabbage would be the only brassica in the shares during the mid-summer weeks. And indeed there will be some fairly large heads of savoy cabbage this week, so make room in the fridge! But we have some purple cauliflower that has been stubbornly refusing to head up and is now ready, as well as some orange cauliflower and some beautiful broccoli. We believe we will have enough for everyone over the next two weeks. Tatsoi will be the green of the week and we are back to beets in the root category. In honor of the arrival of the tomatoes the herb will be basil.
The share for this week will be: potatoes, yellow onions, tatsoi, peppers, savoy cabbage, cucumbers, lettuce, beets, tomatoes, choice of ground cherries or cherry tomatoes, broccoli or cauliflower and basil.
The fruit share for this week will be nectarines and red plums.
Enjoy! Farmer John
