We’ll have the following veggies this week:
lettuce, spinach, chard, kale, onions, potatos, carrots, beets, broccoli, squash, leeks, tomatos, bell peppers, eggplant, dill, cilantro, parsley, basil and hot peppers.
So we’ll have broccoli as a choice this week and just to warn people there will likely be some worms. They wash out pretty easily once you cut open the broccoli if you’re ok with that. By next week I think they’ll be much better as the cabbage moths are pretty much gone now for this year.
On the farm this week:
Well, I’m pretty sure we’re not going to have to water again this year, so that’s a plus. On the down side we got almost 3″ of rain on Thursday, so getting the truck out to the field is always an adventure. In the spring I meant to get some more gravel, but then it was so dry I thought maybe I didn’t need to. Now I’m thinking I need to. But maybe it will dry up again and I’ll start thinking I don’t need to again.
It’s officially soup season now; so we’re bringing out the leeks this week. Just looking at Sarah harvesting leeks this morning made me want to get into bed with some warm leek and potato soup.
We’ve also harvested all the squash now and most of them are curing in the greenhouse. Just looking at this makes me want to eat some squash soup – or a pie! The squash is the one thing we didn’t water this year, and yet it seemed to do better than everything else…hmmm… so if plants don’t get water they grow better. This is good to know for next year!
For squashes we have: acorn, butternut, spaghetti, blue hubbard, red kuri, red kobocha, buttercup, sweet dumpling and pie pumpkins and some regular pumpkins coming later. Here’s the quick down low on the less familiar squashes.
Blue hubbard – the only blue one we have. Sweet flesh bright orange fiberless flesh. Skin is tender compared to other hubbards making it easier to cut. It’s good for soups and pies.
Red Kuri – An oragne hubbard squash. It’s teardrop shape will help distinguish it from the red kobacha which is flat and round. It’s good for pies and purees bc it’s specks of skin will not show.
Red Kobacha: Tender flesh is smooth, sweet and bright orange for baking, mashing and pies. They’re flat and round
Buttercup: Have deep orange fiberless flesh with a rich sweet flavor.
Sweet dumpling: It has the ivory color and dark green stripes of delicata, but in a round flat topped shape. Very sweet, tender orange flesh and good for stuffing.
Our cover crops are also taking off now. You can see some oats and peas in the background and behind Sarah in the leeks above. We also planted a big field of clover this year and I tried planting clover in some of the pathways this year and it worked out really well. All those white spots on the clover roots that I’m holding up are beneficial bacteria that are working hard converting atmospheric nitrogen into plant food!
With all the rain the last couple weeks all of our final plantings have exploded and everything is looking super green which we’re happy about.
And finally, it’s the 15th week of CSA this week. So for some of you it’s the last week. I’ll be emailing everyone a reminder of what duration they signed up for, but thank you so much for taking part and I hope you enjoyed the veggies this summer and I hope to see you all this week.
See you soon,
Jonathan, Sarah, Irina, Renee and Liam