Category: Updates

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To corn, or not to corn?

Warning: This post is long and has no pictures.  It’s probably no fun at all.

Our sweet corn has come and gone.  That’s right – within a 5 day span, we started harvesting, finished harvesting, and mowed it down.  “WHAT!?”  You may ask, “LUDICROUS!” you may rave. How, you’re wondering, did you not even get to taste it?  Well, to find out, you first have to waddle through some of my rantings.

Disclaimer: I do not have an especially positive relationship with corn.  Scratch that, I have an extremely negative relationship with corn.  In fact, I pretty much LOATHE corn.  So, read on with that in mind, and accept that I am very biased.

Continue reading “To corn, or not to corn?”

Week of July 9th CSA Update

It has been a brutally HOT and HUMID week! This weather is hard on plants, animals and people. Picking, storing and keeping the produce looking fresh takes much effort on these days.
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The cauliflower we planted, covered with agribon and weeded several times did not produce before the heat and is in such bad shape, we won’t be able to put it shares. The heads are yellowing and splitting even at a very small size. Much of our lettuce has bolted, but we still have some varieties holding in the field. We plant diversity to mediate risk, but when we a lose crop, we lose the resources we put into the crop as well as the ability to put it in the shares.
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Other crops flourish in the heat, for example zucchini is now in high production and will make its first appearance in your basket this week. Cobbler new potatoes will also be in shares this week. The tomato crop looks good so far and the sweet corn is tasseling and silking up,  we will keep you posted on their progress as the season moves along. We harvested garlic and shallots last week and they are curing in the barn. String beans and cucumbers are flowering and starting to produce and should be showing up in shares soon.
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Think cool thoughts!

The challenges of seasonality

The weather of the past week has proven one thing for sure – summer is upon us!  Scorching days of 90 degree heat that seems to radiate from the ground beneath us and a humidity that makes you melt in the shade have made us all question our sanity, but the hope is that it turns our laborious efforts into a fruitful summer.  As we dredge up all our strength to wake up in the morning and attempt some sort of productivity in spite of the inhospitable climate, we are rewarded with the sight of ripening tomatoes, flowering eggplants, thirst quenching cucumbers and zucchini that seems to triple in size overnight.  Yup, there’s no doubt about it – summer has arrived!

While summer traditionally is a period marked by juicy tomatoes and sweet corn, it also means the end of some of our more delicate spring crops.  Spinach is a distant memory, lettuce browns and wilts in the hot days, and our more cool-tolerant brassicas have decided to just give up.  Most traumatic to me, however, is the passing of sugar snap peas as we pulled the remnants of the plants up this weekend in order to pave the way for summer crop planting.  It was all I could do to scavenge the last few perfectly plump peas as we piled our compost high with the plant matter.  Despite my desperation at clinging to the last few remnants of spring, I can’t say these peapods were especially tasty.  As the plants get stressed, the fruit gets tougher and significantly less sweet.  What I find most intriguing is that my tastes have started to fluctuate with seasons as well – after the first harvest I ate nearly 2 pounds in the course of a 1 hour flight, and now have to actively try to eat a handful.

Continue reading “The challenges of seasonality”

CSA Update for July 2nd and 6th

First it was the rain and now it is really HOT and muggy. These are the days we question our sanity about being farmers!

The warm weather and wet fields are good for many crops, but also favor the weeds. Much effort is getting put into trying to keep the weeds down on the farm this year. One reason we planted the mustard (which got harrowed over the weekend) was to smother weeds. It seems to be successful and was quite pretty. We are sad to see it gone, but will plant it again on another part of the farm soon. The vetch near the exit of the farm was mowed down, so we can get the field ready for our fall crops. The vetch keeps down weeds too and adds nitrogen to the soil.

Snap peas are done for the season, but shelling peas will make an appearance in your basket this week. New potatoes will be in your basket this week too. They are uncured, so the skin is quite easy to peel off. One of the advantages of buying local is getting to try crops in ways that you won’t often get at the supermarket. We hope you enjoy them.