Farm News- July 12, 2012

Hello Folks,

Hot enough for you? We are still very dry here at the farm. Saturday’s storms passed mostly to the south of us and we received only about a tenth of an inch of precipitation. Many of the summer crops have drip irrigation, but not all and so we are busy moving the sprinklers every day. I was counting on some rain to help germinate the winter squash crop which I have been planting. But there’s not much in sight and it looks like I’ll have to devote a lot of my time this week to setting up the water system in the new field where it has been sown.

We hope to have enough broccoli for all one more time this week and then that will be done until the fall. Those who received cauliflower last week will get cabbage this week and vice versa. We will have beets this week: regular purple types as well as Chioggia, also known as candy cane beets, which are white with red rings inside. Peas are ending a bit prematurely, due to the extreme conditions. We hope to have a small amount of mostly sugar snaps in the shares for this week. Beans will begin in a week or two. Cucumbers are coming in heavy and we’ve begun to dig potatoes. This week’s bitter green will be radicchio, mostly a green, Treviso type, which look like small green torpedoes.

Many thanks to the volunteers who came out to help with the garlic harvest on Sunday. It was a big help to us, allowing my crew to devote more time to other neglected tasks such as trellising the tomatoes and fighting the weeds.

The share for this week will be:
Broccoli, red lettuce, beets, cabbage or cauliflower, fresh garlic, summer squash, cucumbers, peas, radicchio, red skin potatoes, and basil.

Enjoy!
Farmer John