Farm News – August 1, 2022
Hi All! “Hot” and “dry” continue to be the best words to describe conditions on the farm. The few rain events that were forecast turned out to be duds, delivering only a few scattered drops. We are doing our best to keep water on the most important crops and keep newly sown seeds moist so that they will sprout. Just as they say about elections, drought has consequences. Our string bean crop has been languishing in the heat and producing small misshapen pods. Fortunately, we have some pole beans which have drip irrigation on them. These are an heirloom variety called the Rattlesnake bean (down south they call them Preacher beans). They are a flat pod type with some purple streaking and are generally quite sweet and tender.
We have a pause in our sweet corn production, but the potato vines have died back enough that the skins will stand machine harvesting. We will have some red skin potatoes for you this week. The ground is dry enough that the potatoes are coming out without large amounts of soil stuck to them. We will be sending the potatoes unwashed because we find that the spuds begin to rot quickly after being wet.
August is melon month and the first few have begun to ripen. We may have enough for groups that pickup on Friday. We will be in rotation with various types of melon and watermelon over the next 4-5 weeks. We also have a lot of ground cherries falling off the plants. These cousins to tomatillos are sweet and have a tropical/nutty flavor. Squeeze them out of their paper husk and enjoy them as a snack, or add to salads. Everyone should receive some over the next 2 cycles.
The plan was to ship red cabbage this week but unfortunately, we lost a lot and what we did pick has a slight defect in the center of the head (a few small brown, withered leaves). We will send some as an extra this week, just keep in mind you will have to pull out a few bad parts when you are preparing it.
The share for this week will be: Tomatoes, squash, peppers, eggplant, red-skin potatoes, rainbow carrots, basil, maybe melons and maybe ground cherries. There will be red cabbage and tomatillos as “extras.” Premium shares will also include shallots, chard, and choice of a second herb.
The fruit share for this week will be: Nectarines and red plums.
Bon Appetit!
