Farm News

It's that awkward time of year again: the dry weather is great for getting the last of our main crops seeded and transplanted, but at the same time, the seeds and plants that are already in the ground could really benefit from a good soaking. And so I check the weather forecast each day (or several times a day!) with some ambivalence - as each day passes, more and more gets planted, but the need to set up the irrigation system moves steadily higher on the priority list. 

Our winter squash crop has been the focus of a lot of effort this week. Yesterday, I counted roughly 7,000 squash and pumpkin seedlings in the greenhouse, and by the end of the day today, over half of them were in the field. That's meant a couple of early mornings in the field laying the bio-plastic mulch in the coolest part of the day and some hot afternoons on the tractor and transplanter. 

The rest of the crop is now waiting for another field to be ready - we harvested hay from it at the end of last week (here's a photo of Jasmine and Gabriel helping to bring in the last load of bales). The next task is to work it up, till beds, and lay bio-plastic to prepare it for transplanting - hopefully I'll be able to report that job done by this time next week!

Market News

As I predicted last week, the rhubarb and spinach have succumbed to this hot, dry weather. We're hoping to have spinach again in the fall, but you'll have to wait until next spring for fresh rhubarb. However, the arugula, baby lettuce, and mild mesclun mix continue to hang in there. An early bird or two will be able to snap up some Beta mix, and there's a fresh seeding of that on the way for future weeks. We were short on sunflower seed last week, so we're limited to pea shoots and wheatgrass this week on the shoots and sprouts front - the good news is that our seed order beat the postal strike, so we'll be back in the sunflower shoot business next week!

Boy, was our baby kale ever popular last week! We bagged each of the red, green, and lacianto (or dinosaur) leaves separately, but a number of customers just couldn't make up their mind and took one of each! We'll have more this week, for those who missed out last time. New this week from the fields are oriental greens, including the dark-green tatsoi and some lovely little heads of pak choy. These really shine in stir-fries. Our kohlrabi is right on the verge of being ready to harvest - I probably won't be able to resist harvesting a few bunches for market, too.

Our heirloom tomato, pepper, and cucumber seedlings continued to sell well last week, so we'll give everyone one last chance to fill that last corner of the garden, or a large empty pot. The cherry tomato hanging baskets are really starting to blossom now, so you'll have a real sense of just how productive these will be in the weeks to come!

Looking ahead, expect to see our summer turnips make their long-anticipated arrival next week, along with some shell peas. I wouldn't be surprised if the first of the garlic scapes are ready by then, too, as well as some heads of lettuce.

World News

A couple of news items have caught my attention this week: the first, of course, is the tragic e. coli outbreak in Germany that is being linked to bean sprouts produced on an organic farm in northern Germany. The second is the annual release of the Environmental Working Group's "Dirty Dozen" list of the fruits and vegetables with the highest levels of pesticide contamination. Have either of these stories had an impact on your food shopping habits? Please leave a comment below and let me know!

Thanks for reading...hope to see you at market or hear from you soon!