Farm Update #17

Hello Everyone,

We received a bit more rain this past week from the storm that passed
through on Thursday. It wasn’t much, perhaps a quarter of an inch,
nothing like the downpour experienced in the eastern part of the state
and NYC. Fortunately we were also spared the high winds and hail that
accompanied the storm in these areas. We are still a little on the dry
side, but the fall crops look great and the most recent planting are
germinating nicely. The final summer squash patch is producing
abundantly, so expect lots of zucchini and summer squash for the next
few weeks. The beans too, are beginning to bear prolifically, although
they are a bit slower to size up now, as the days get shorter and the
nights cooler.  There weren’t enough to go around last week, so some
groups did not receive them.  Those who did got only a half pound. We
will try to compensate for the inequity this week, by sending larger
quantities to those who were skipped last week. Eggplant production
remains slow, so we are still in an every other week rotation. The
tomato harvest has slowed to a trickle; we will try to include a few
in the shares, but I can’t make any promises.

We have the wonderful Hakurei salad turnips available once again.
Remember that the tops are a good cooking green or can even be added
raw to salads.  The turnips can be cooked or eaten raw. Both the
greens and the roots are of better quality in the fall than those of
the early summer harvest.  The Swiss chard is absolutely gorgeous
right now and we will have spinach in the next week or two. The first
large planting of fall broccoli should be starting to head up soon, so
it should be in the shares within 2 weeks. The first of the fall
lettuce crop is also still about 2 weeks away from being ready.  Since
it’s been so many weeks without lettuce, I decided to buy some from
another local organic grower. Besides the corn, this will likely be
the only veggie not grown on the farm to be included in the share.

The share for this week will be: Boston lettuce, salad turnips, beans,
peppers, Swiss chard, fingerling potatoes, garlic, summer squash,
tomatoes?, eggplant?, and choice of an
herb.

Enjoy!
Farmer John