Hi Everyone,

The weather continues to be glorious, with unseasonable warmth, but we still have not received any substantial rain. A passing front that had been predicted to drop close to an inch of rain delivered less than 1/8 of an inch. There isn’t any rain predicted for the near future, but there is no prediction of frost either, so hopefully our late plantings of tomatoes and beans will have a chance to produce a crop.

The tomatoes still have not begun ripening so they will continue to be scarce this week. We will begin deliveries of winter squash this week, starting with spaghetti squash. Next week we will have butternut, with acorn, delicate and buttercup to follow as we go through October. We still have an abundance of edamame soybeans, so they will be in the share again this week. We also have sufficient quantities of assorted string beans to deliver. There is no lettuce this week, but the next planting is growing beautifully and some should attain harvestable size by next week.

The share for this week will be: Garlic, Fingerling potatoes, arugula or mizuna (Asian mustard green), French breakfast radishes, peppers, eggplant, spaghetti squash, choice of celery or fennel, edamame soybeans, string beans, and choice of an herb.

Enjoy!

Farmer John

Hello Everyone,

We continue to experience dry conditions, with no substantial rain now for over 3 weeks. We are moving the sprinklers around constantly to help germinate newly planted seeds and keep other crops growing rapidly.

I expect to sow the last few beds of direct seeded crops this week- arugula, salad turnips and some oriental mustard greens. We will also be transplanting another batch of lettuce plants this week, which will be ready for harvest in November. I will finally be done with planting for this year!

Tomatoes have become rather scarce at the moment, but a late planting of plum tomatoes and some heirlooms are getting close to ripening. Hopefully we can begin harvesting these by next week, and with some luck from the weather (no frosts) will continue to have tomatoes well into October.

We again have beets with tops, there will be a choice of white, candy cane, or an elongated red type-aptly named Cylindro. The beet greens are quite nutritious and can be steamed, sautéed or used in soup. We also have edamame soybeans this week. These Japanese treats are prepared by boiling in the pods and then slipping the seeds out with your teeth! We will also be offering celery or fennel as a choice this week. This will be repeated again next week, so you will have a chance to get both.

This week’s share will be: Lettuce, yellow onions, potatoes, sweet corn (conventional), peppers, eggplant, edamame soybeans, beets, celery or fennel, melons, choice of an herb, and maybe tomatoes.

Enjoy!

Farmer John

Hi Everyone,

Well fall is in the air, with some very cool nights this past week, but for now we will continue to enjoy summer vegetables. Peppers have begun to ripen abundantly to beautiful shades of red, orange and yellow. We still have lots of melons and watermelons.

The edamame soybeans are almost ready, but will need one more week for all the pods to finish filling out. These can be quite time consuming to harvest and so we need to wait until all of the pods on the bush are mature and can be harvested at one time. I am also waiting on a planting of lima beans to begin producing.

The Rattlesnake beans have slowed down considerably, probably due to the dry conditions for the past 3 weeks. It’s uncertain whether we can harvest enough to put in this week’s share. Cucumbers are also in short supply.

The fall broccoli and cabbage plants are growing beautifully and should be ready to begin harvesting in 4 or 5 weeks. As I mentioned previously we are out of lettuce for the moment, but I am buying some from another local organic farm to put in the shares this week.

This week’s share will be: Lettuce, Swiss chard, garlic, potatoes, melons, peppers, eggplant, carrots, tomatoes and choice of an herb.

Enjoy! Farmer John

Hi Everyone,

Summer is in it’s final weeks, but the summertime veggies continue to be abundant. While most of my tomato plants have been stricken with early blight, I have a late planting that should start to produce in the next few weeks. I also have second plantings of zucchini, cucumbers, and beans which if the weather stays warm will start to produce in early October.

This past week I was finally able to seed many cool weather crops such as spinach, radishes, turnips, broccoli raab and various other greens. Some of these will be ready for harvest in just a few weeks, while others will come in during October and November.

We’ve had a good run with the lettuce, with some in every share thus far this season, but we’re approaching a gap in my lettuce production. This week we will be cutting some romaine lettuce for bunching, that was direct seeded for salad mix. After this there may be a few weeks without lettuce in the shares. Melons continue to ripen abundantly, and the warm weather has insured their sweetness. There will be a choice of cantaloupe, honey dew, or watermelon, this week.

The share for this week will be: Tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, red onions, melons, cucumbers, bu

Hi Everyone,

This past week’s cool and damp weather has caused new challenges for us on several fronts. Several days of overcast, drizzly weather created perfect conditions for the growth and spread of fungal diseases. Early blight in tomatoes, alternaria blight in carrots and various other fungi which affect the leaves of beets, squash, melons, and cukes all thrive under these conditions. Harvesting is made difficult because handling the plants when they are wet aids in the spread of the diseases. I will have to find the time this coming week to spray with one or more of the anti-fungal products approved for organic production. My favorite is a product called Sporan, which contains essential oils of rosemary and clove. If nothing else, the farm will sure smell great! Future deliveries of beets and carrots will most likely be made without tops, at least until second and third plantings begin to mature.

Another challenge of these wet conditions is planting the various fall crops which are direct seeded. Various varieties of veggies from arugula to spinach need to be sown in the next several weeks. I have most of the ground prepared for these crops, but the seeder does not function well when the soil is too wet. Fortunately dry weather is forecast for the next several days and I expect to plant radishes, turnips, bok choy, broccoli raab, and various types of mustard greens. Melons have begun to ripen and will be in the shares over the next few weeks as they become available in sufficient quantities.

The share for this week will be: Red leaf lettuce, beets, yellow onions, beans, cukes, peppers, tomatoes, eggplant, choice of escarole or Swiss chard, sweet corn(conventional), and choice of an herb.

Enjoy!
Farmer John

Hi Everyone,

Last Friday we received over 2 ½ inches of rain, a lot more than I would have liked. Harvesting for the weekend markets was a bit difficult and now the fields are to wet to work the ground, so I am a little set back in planting the fall crops. On Thursday we planted a few thousand broccoli plants, the rain was at least beneficial to them.

We are continuing to harvest lots of beans and cukes and the tomatoes are also starting to come in heavily, including some of the heirloom varieties. The beans for this week will include an heirloom variety called Dragon Langerie. It is a flat wax bean with purple streaking and is quite tender and sweet. They are not a shell bean; use them as you would a normal string bean. We will also be shipping bunched adolescent lettuce, in between a baby leaf and a full sized head. It is very tender and makes a nice salad.

The share for this week will be: Tomatoes, peppers, summer squash, cucumbers, lettuce, garlic, choice of carrots or Chioggia(candy cane) beets, beans, choice of arugula or other mustard greens, sweet corn (conventionally grown-but freshly picked) and choice of an herb. There will also be eggplant for those groups which did not receive it last week as promised.

Enjoy! Farmer John

Hi Everyone,Last Monday brought us a little over 2” of precipitation in a slow steady rain that was able to soak into the ground. This past weekend we received about another inch. The ground is finally well re-hydrated and most everything is growing well. We have begun digging potatoes and will have a red skinned variety in the share this week. They are, as predicted, a bit small due to the dry spring and early summer. Hopefully the later varieties will be able to take advantage of the recent rains and achieve a more respectable size. We are currently in the process of planting fall crops. We will be transplanting Brussel sprouts, broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower seedlings this week and seeding spinach, radishes, turnips, arugula and other mustard greens. We are also seeding lettuces, radicchio, kohlrabi in the greenhouse for transplanting in about 3-4 weeks. We have finished harvesting the radicchio and there is enough for everyone in the share this week. This time it will be the more well known round red type, although some will be a red trevisio type. We won’t have peppers this week, as I want to leave as much green fruit as possible to ripen to red, yellow and orange. Eggplant is still coming in sparingly, so there is not enough for everyone, so we will include some as an extra. Tomatoes are still not ready for at least one more week. Sorry!

The share for this week will be: Radicchio, carrots, kale, potatoes, cabbage, red onions, summer squash, cucumbers, choice of green or wax beans, lettuce (choice of various varieties), and choice of an herb- basil, parsley or dill.

Enjoy! Farmer John

Hi Everyone,This past week brought continued mild temperatures and another inch of much needed rain. The rain was not as helpful as it might have been, because it all fell in a little over an hour, and much of it ran off before the ground could soak it up. Soil shrinks and tightens up when it gets dry and thus resists re-hydration. In the process of digging the garlic I was able to see just how dry the soil is down deep. We were able to finish harvesting the garlic last Thursday afternoon with the help of a wonderful implement called an under cutter blade. This is a 5ft. long blade which is pulled by a tractor and slides just under the garlic lifting and loosening the soil, allowing the garlic to be easily pulled by hand. We were able to harvest all 4000’ row feet in about 5 hours; a task that would have taken 2 days using pitch forks. The crop looks good and the average head size decent- not as small as I had feared due to the dry spring. We are continuing to harvest cauliflower and have been able to do a better job with blanching the heads. I expect there will be enough for everyone again this week, if not it will be offered as a choice with broccoli or kohlrabi. As promised and predicted green beans have begun producing profusely, so they will replace the peas in the lineup this week. We have also begun harvesting cucumbers and a few peppers. The first cukes are a Kirby or pickling type, a small yellow skinned variety and an Indian type called Poona Kheera, which start out yellow and turns a rusty brown (a bit ugly frankly, but they taste good!) These will be followed in the coming weeks with regular and the long English types. Carrots are almost ready but I would like to give them another week to size up and take advantage of the recent rains. We will offer beets as the root vegetable again this week. The deer continue to cause be a great deal of grief in my tomato plots. They have eaten most of the first fruit of the early varieties. It will most likely be another 2 weeks before I have enough tomatoes to distribute.

The share for this week will be: Beans, peppers, cauliflower, cucumbers, garlic, red leaf or Boston lettuce, Swiss chard, summer squash, beets, and choice of an herb.

Enjoy! Farmer John

Hello Everyone,Well, the weather continues to be favorable; we received a little over an inch of rain this past week, and after 2 scorching days at the beginning of the week unusually mild temperatures for mid-July. We weren’t able to harvest the garlic last week as planned because I need to move a tractor from another field and I was unable to finish the work that I need to do with that tractor where it is now. We are also just crazy busy, with harvesting, weeding, planting etc. At the moment we are scrambling to harvest the onion crop and hang them or lay them out where they won’t get rained on to dry. We have a truly spectacular onion harvest this year- the best I’ve ever had. Now I have to make sure that they are handled properly and don’t rot. This is a bit problematic because of the lack of infrastructure that I have. We are hanging them in the greenhouse and the high tunnel greenhouse, but are quickly running out of space! We will be shipping the sweet onions again this week, because they are still abundant and don’t keep well. Look for red onions next week. There are many new items this week. Summer squash has begun and should be abundant for many weeks to come. We harvested fava beans this past Friday, but they once again yielded very poorly. They will be offered as a choice with peas. Now that spinach is done we can begin harvesting the Swiss chard, a favorite with many of you, I know. The cauliflower is a bit disappointing, as we weren’t able to keep the heads sufficiently blanched, with the long summer days. It is not as white as I would like but it still tastes good. Fall cauliflower will look much nicer, I promise!

The share for this week will be: Peas or fava beans, beets- choice of red or Chioggia (candy cane), radicchio (red round type or a green trevisio type), cauliflower, Swiss chard, romaine lettuce, summer squash (zucchini or a half green half yellow type called Zephyr), sweet onion, and a choice of herb (basil, cilantro, or parsley)

Enjoy! Farmer John

Hello Everyone,This past week brought us about .8 inches of rain that combined with the relatively cool temps for early July has been very beneficial to the cool weather crops. The cauliflower is still not ready in large enough quantities to deliver, but we will begin cutting some heads as they size up and hold them in the cooler until next week. We do have a lot of broccoli heading up, so there should be enough for everyone. There is also still a preponderance of peas, so enjoy them while they last. The beans have begun flowering and the plants look great, so they should be right on schedule to begin just as the peas are petering out (ha-ha) The beets are still a bit small so we will wait 1 more week on them. Turnips are still in good supply. One of my market customers suggests making turnip pancakes- just substitute grated turnip for the potato in a potato pancake recipe! It might be worth a try if you can’t get your kids or your spouse to eat turnips. The zucchini has begun producing, but not enough to distribute yet. The plants look great and are full of small squash, so definitely next week…. We harvested the last of the spinach today, so enjoy it one more time; it won’t be back until the fall. What are new this week are the sweet onions. Two varieties, Walla Walla and Ailsa Craig that are the northern equivalent of a Vidalia onion, are ready. They are large and very mild, but they don’t keep well, so user them in the next 2 weeks. We will be harvesting the garlic this week so it will be in the share again in a couple of weeks after it cures a bit. The heads will be a bit small this year because of the dry spring, but it will still be quite tasty.

The share for this week will be: Red leaf lettuce, broccoli, choice of peas, spinach, choice of salad turnips, red turnips or radishes, sweet onions, choice of basil, cilantro or parsley.

Enjoy! Farmer John