Halfway there!
While our herb supply has thinned, we are hoping to make up for it with a hefty box of summer vegetables and other treats from the farm & gardens. Up to 13 different items this week!
Cherry Tomatoes and Heirloom Tomatoes (Martha Washington, Moskovich, Pink Wonder), Zucchini and Yellow Squash, Bush Beans, Mild Peppers (Bells, Carmens, and/or Shishitos), Hot Peppers (Jalapeno, Anaheim, Hungarian Hot Wax), Cucumbers, Red Okra, Microgreen Salad Mix, Storage Onions, Eggs, and Flowers.
We continue to lament the failure of our sweet corn crop. It’s something we have lost sleep over. Last week, we attempted to start distributing some passable (not impressive) ears to our home delivery shareholders and hope to share more if they’re available. We will not be keeping any for ourselves and we will not be selling any at markets. If there are usable ears, they will go to shareholders. Not everything has gone to plan this season and for the times we have under-delivered, we apologize. Happily, we’ve managed to produce a tomato crop despite our difficulties, and our other summer vegetables continue to thrive.
Out in the summer field blocks, we have new winter squash varieties maturing and slowly ripening. It shouldn’t be too long before we have butternut squash to distribute. We have some volunteer pumpkin plants with big green gourds, nice spaghetti squashes fully grown and waiting to ripen, and Delicata- sort of a creamy, sweet potatoey, summer/winter squash hybrid with a tender rind.
Our big field blocks have been awfully thirsty these past few weeks. As we have discussed before, we are not organized this year to efficiently irrigate our larger gardens. We focus our attention on young plants and new seeds and rely on most mature crops to find water naturally. With our big expansion this year, we’ve had to learn to be more comfortable with some compromises being less than ideal. This has admittedly been a curse and a blessing. We’re able to avoid the temptation of over-watering (a common mistake) but it can be hard to watch sometimes. Yesterday, we finally experienced some decent precipitation. Our field tomatoes, peppers, okra, squashes & melons, beans, and flowers were clearly appreciative.
Just before yesterday’s rain, we were able to direct seed some fall greens and roots to rows in our smaller garden. We seeded Spinach, Arugula, Lettuce, Radish, and Beets. Carrots have germinated again and our indoor nursery is back in action starting cool season crop transplants just like in early spring. This week, we’ll be sharing more microgreens and hope to get better at routinely keeping these nutritious additions in our rotation again.
Egg production continues to be a challenge, but we welcomed 10 new laying hens onto the farm last week. We were recently reminded of one consolation regarding whether we have full or half dozens available for all our folks each week: If we are only able to provide a half dozen when you could use a dozen, remember that every Sunday and Wednesday our egg numbers reset at zero. This means if you are a Sunday shareholder, the oldest egg you’ll receive was laid the previous Wednesday evening. If you’re a Wednesday shareholder, the oldest egg you’ll receive was laid the previous Sunday evening. We don’t know that there’s a better way to get pasture raised eggs that fresh without raising them yourself. We will continue to work on more maintaining more regular egg production numbers, but we hope this reminder is reassuring.
It’s hard to believe, but Erin will be returning to a full-time teacher’s schedule starting Monday - year 9 for her. She is thrilled to be teaching AP Environmental Science for the first time (& Biology again) this year and plans to incorporate farm-related lessons as much as possible. Her students will be helping to incubate, hatch and raise next year’s laying hens all school year - breeding specifically for egg color, winter-hardiness and size.
We’ve learned a lot this summer about what two people can and can’t reasonably accomplish on the farm. There may be volunteer weeding, watering, and harvesting opportunities upcoming as we transition and adjust our productivity. If you’re interested in helping out, send us your availability and what work you’d be good at and we will keep you in mind for when things get heavy.
We’re halfway there! We hope our friends and shareholders are enjoying participation in the ups and downs of this ambitious, small scale operation. We’re certainly grateful for the experience.
Have a great week!
Erin & David