Farm News – July 11, 2013

Hello everyone,
Well, we are into the “dog days of summer” now with the heat and humidity making field work a challenge to say the least. The rain has let up enough for us to resume planting. I have now planted about 90% of the winter squash crop, with the remainder to go in today. I also plan to plant more beets, carrots, and beans this week. The heat loving crops are thriving and we will soon have eggplant, tomatoes, and peppers.

We will begin harvesting potatoes for next week. We are in the process of harvesting the garlic crop and we will send some fresh garlic in this week’s share.

Thanks to those who came out in the sweltering heat to help out on Sunday. We normally send the smaller bulbs to start, since it is easier to peel when fresh, and save the larger stock for later deliveries.

We still have broccoli coming in, though smaller heads than before. Some groups will get broccoli this week, others next week. We have a second crop of beautiful cauliflower coming in and should have enough for everyone. Some will be a yellow variety called Cheddar.

We continue to be overwhelmed with lettuce and will send 2 heads again this week.

The beets have finally begun to size up and will be in this week’s share. Some will be an Italian heirloom type called Chioggia, aka candy cane beets. They are white with red rings inside and a red outer ring. We also have a green trevisio type of radicchio, this means the heads are not round but rather torpedo shaped.

We still have some Napa cabbage and some kohlrabi left and will offer these two items as a choice this week.

The share for this week will be: Kale, 2 heads of lettuce, beets, cauliflower, choice of Napa cabbage or kohlrabi, some type of peas, fennel, summer squash, fresh garlic, basil, choice of an herb- summer savory, thyme, or sweet marjoram, fava beans, and possibly cucumbers.

Enjoy! Farmer John