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Farm Update #16, week 14, september 15th delivery

Hello Everyone,

We received a good steady rain last Friday and Saturday that was, for
a change, needed and appreciated. The fall brassicas crops are growing
nicely and the many rows of seed I sowed during the dry spell have
germinated well. In several weeks we will begin to have radishes and
the white salad turnips as well as arugula and other greens.

The ground cherries continue to fall abundantly and they will be in
the share again this week. The eggplant production has begun to slow
down and while the plants continue to flower they have dropped much of
their leaf. This is a consequence of the cooler weather we have had as
well as fungal diseases that have began to take their toll.  We will
take a week off from delivering eggplant and meanwhile I will spray
them with Neem oil, a natural fungicide, to try to sustain their
production for a few more weeks.

As previously mentioned the Rattlesnake bean production has dwindled
but the final planting of bush beans have begun to flower and should
be ready to harvest by next week. We also have edamame soybeans on the
way; probably in 2 weeks. We finally have an abundance of colored
peppers, so most of the peppers in this weeks share should be red,
orange, or my favorite, chocolate.

We are in the process of putting up a temporary fence around the
winter squash planting, as the deer have discovered them and are
beginning to destroy what is already a somewhat meager crop. Wet
conditions caused much of the young fruit to rot immediately after the
blossom dropped. There probably won’t be any pumpkins this year and
the other winter squash varieties will likely be a bit small.

The share for this week will be: Romaine lettuce, red-skinned
potatoes, red onions, beans, celery, summer squash, beets, ground
cherries, peppers, and choice of an herb.

The fruit share will be Gala apples and Bartlett pears. A few of the pears will have some slight hail damage from early in the season.
Enjoy!
Farmer John