Notes From The Farm

This week we planted the last lettuce crop of the summer, and seeded a fall crop of spinach and radishes.  At this point we are able to see some of the highs and lows of the growing season.  This spring started off unseasonably cool, which was great for onions, lettuce and other greens, but not to the liking of tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and summer squash.  The leafy greens thrived while others plants were just waiting for a bit of heat.  The peppers in our greenhouses did okay, and we will start putting a few in the shares over the next few weeks.  The tomatoes are still deciding what they are going to do, it depends on how warm the next couple weeks are.  Our first crop of cucumbers are downright pathetic, but we planted a few in mid-July (a first!) and those plants are big and healthier than the cucumber plants we started in May….sheesh, go figure.  We hope for a nice crop of fall cucumbers!  The zucchini/summer squash seems to be getting this weird blossom end rot, blooming but not doing much after that.  We planted more zucs in mid-July and again with some heat, those plants may outproduce the ones started in May.

Our sweet corn produced, but we are noticing an odd correlation between smoky summers and bird’s chomping on the corn.  Thus we are harvesting it early.  There may be a few nibbles taken out of the top, consider it your contribution to migratory birds.

On the positive note the onions, beets, and carrots are out of this world!  And we had phenomenal crops of romanesco, cauliflower, beans and cabbage.  As we head toward fall you will a bountiful box/bag of produce each week.  Thank you for your continued support.

This Week’s Veggie Feast

Sweet Corn, Anaheim Pepper, Purple Carrots, Sweet Onion, Parsley, Swiss Chard, Salad Mix, Beans (they missed the photo shoot)

New This Week

Sweet corn

Sweet and slightly-nibbled (see above).

Anaheims

Anaheim Peppers are generally mild and good for roasting, or dicing into some salsa or eggs.  But be warned!!! A few of our pepper plants are not what they appear to be!  We are not sure if the seed company accidentally slipped a few oddball seeds into the packet or if some of our own seeds cross-pollinated.  We have found a couple of crazy HOT peppers.  Test a tiny bit first before taking a big bite (like Leon did-oops!).

Purple Carrots

Leon has been working on this variety of purple carrots since I first met him in 1999.  He was going to call it Purple Haze, but another breeder took the name for their carrots.  So we have just called it “purple carrot”, yep, real imaginative.  For a while it looked like we were going to lose “purple carrot”; we couldn’t get an early enough jump on the season for the carrots to produce seeds.  Leon was persistent, and last year we finally got an abundance of seeds.  These carrots have purplish-reddish skins and an orange interior.  They generally get better as the weather cools but we were excited to harvest some of these pretties for your plate this week.