Farm News – September 23, 2019

Hello Everyone! So, we received no rain at all this past week. After a wet spring and summer, fall is looking to be on the dry side. We have a chance for some showers early Monday evening which we are hoping will materialize. I am in the final week of seeding fall crops – spinach, turnips, radishes, cilantro, arugula, and other mustard greens. Since we have sandy soil the surface dries out quickly, and we have been moving the sprinklers around to ensure good germination of these plantings. We are also expecting broccoli and cauliflower to begin heading up soon and these crops need a lot of water. It appears that we will need to utilize the overhead irrigation on these crops to ensure good head size.

We have some very nice beets with tops as the root crop for this week. Unfortunately, carrots are still a few weeks away, since my first July planting did not come up well and had to be abandoned. Butternut squash makes its first appearance this week. We will be rotating through the various types winter squash during the rest of the season. We have one large, late planting of summer squash which should start to bear fruit in a week or two, so we are hoping to take a break from the winter types to reprise the summer! Our eggplant production has dropped off, but we will be including some in the shares for some groups each week over the next several weeks, so that all will receive some once more this season.

The share for this week will be: beans, peppers, blue gold potatoes, beets, choice of kale or collards, red onions, choice of arugula or broccoli raab, butternut squash, and choice of an herb. Premium shares will also get radishes and choice of escarole or radicchio.

The fruit share for this week will be: Honey crisp apples and Asian pears.

Enjoy! Farmer John