Farm News – October 16, 2014
Hi Folks, Mother Nature continues to dole out the precipitation with an eye dropper. On Saturday we received about .3 inches of the wet stuff. Once again the rain event coincided perfectly with the hours of my Saturday market, dampening sales as well as my workers and I. We are predicted to get a more substantial drenching on Wednesday and Thursday of this week.
It turns out I was wrong about having narrowly escaped a frost last week. It took a while for the plants to manifest the damage but we had a very light frost that singed the beans, peppers, squash and sweet potatoes. This was repeated this past early Sunday morning, but we were a bit better prepared for it this time. My crew picked most of the peppers and tomatoes that were ripe in the field and we covered the beans with an Ag fabric that gives a few degrees of protection. It is probably futile but I am determined to harvest a few beans from this late planting!
The broccoli continues to head up though somewhat slowly. I am reluctant to cut the heads before they reach a good size because we then use up the planting too quickly putting more stalks in each bunch. Those who received broccoli last week will get kohlrabi this week. The rest of the groups will get broccoli or kale (if there is not enough broccoli to go around). We are temporarily out of spinach but have several more planting that are growing nicely. We are also waiting for the arugula and tatsoi to get a little bigger and expecting the broccoli raab to begin to make buds soon. We have some lovely red fingerling type potatoes for you this week. The skins are relatively clean so unless to wish to make yourself crazy- don’t even think about peeling these babies. Sweet potatoes next week! Yippee!
Acorn will be the winter squash selection for this week. We are also sending some ornamental mini pumpkins which are actually edible and cool for stuffing. We will offer a choice of beets or salad turnips in the root vegetable category this round. We are doubling up in the allium family this week-sending both leeks and cippolini onions.
The share for this week will be: tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, lettuce, choice of beets or salad turnips, purple bok choy, leeks, choice of escarole or endive (frissee), acorn squash, mini pumpkins, cippolini onions, broccoli or kohlrabi or kale, and choice of an herb. Enjoy!
Farmer John
