Farm News- September 17, 2009

Hello Everyone,

We received a good steady rain last Friday and Saturday that was, for a change, needed and appreciated. The fall brassicas crops are growing nicely and the many rows of seed I sowed during the dry spell have germinated well.

In several weeks we will begin to have radishes and the white salad turnips as well as arugula and other greens.

The ground cherries continue to fall abundantly and they will be in the share again this week.

The eggplant production has begun to slow down and while the plants continue to flower they have dropped much of their leaf. This is a consequence of the cooler weather we have had as well as fungal diseases that have began to take their toll. We will take a week off from delivering eggplant and meanwhile I will spray them with Neem oil, a natural fungicide, to try to sustain their production for a few more weeks.

As previously mentioned the Rattlesnake bean production has dwindled but the final planting of bush beans have begun to flower and should be ready to harvest by next week.

We also have edamame soybeans on the way; probably in 2 weeks. We finally have an abundance of colored peppers, so most of the peppers in this weeks share should be red, orange, or my favorite, chocolate.

We are in the process of putting up a temporary fence around the winter squash planting, as the deer have discovered them and are beginning to destroy what is already a somewhat meager crop. Wet conditions caused much of the young fruit to rot immediately after the blossom dropped. There probably won’t be any pumpkins this year and the other winter squash varieties will likely be a bit small.

The share for this week will be: Romaine lettuce, red skinned potatoes, red onions, beans, celery, summer squash, beets, ground cherries, peppers, and choice of an herb.

Enjoy!
Farmer John

Ps. Please note that some of the pears were damaged by hail storms early in the summer.