Farm News – September 12, 2016

Hey Folks! So after another mercifully brief heat wave it has cooled off again. Unfortunately, the rain that generally accompanies these temperature changes did not materialize. We were also missed by the scattered storms that moved through on Friday. So it’s dust bowl days here on the farm again! I am trying to prepare beds for the last round of transplants and direct seeded crops as well as 50 acres of ground to be planted in oats and rye as cover crop. I ride over my fields enveloped in clouds of dust. We are moving the sprinklers around constantly to get newly planted seeds to germinate, wilting transplants to perk up, and mature crops to produce or continue producing. It seems that we have lost the final planting of cucumbers; we just could get water on them in time and they have more or less burned up. We have a couple of shots at the wet stuff in the week ahead, so keep your fingers crossed.

In spite of it all we have a great share for you this week. We are starting the winter squash category this week with spaghetti squash, since we have lots of plum tomatoes to give you, should you choose to cook them to use with the squash. We also have carrots, red cabbage, and beautiful colored peppers. Most of the beans that we have now are heirloom types: Rattlesnake – a flat type with purple streaking, and Dragon Langerie (aka Dragon’s Tongue) – a wax bean also streaked with purple. A bounty of color (or perhaps a colorful bounty!).

The share for this week will be: lettuce, beans, spaghetti squash, yellow onion, peppers, carrots, choice of kale or chard, eggplant, red cabbage, and plum tomatoes. The fruit share will be Gala apples, Hardy kiwi, and goldenberries (aka ground cherries)

Enjoy! Farmer John