Hello Everyone!

This past week we finally got some much needed rain. Two successive evening storms dropped a total of about 1 ¼ inches of water. We could use more, but it was enough to give a boost to the many spring planted crops as they are approaching the finish line. I am continuing to run the drip irrigation heavily on the brassicas. The earliest of the broccoli varieties have begun heading in sufficient quantities to begin delivering this week. The heads are not large, but the quality looks good, considering the extreme heat we’ve had recently. Cabbage, kohlrabi and cauliflower will also be approaching harvestable size in the next few weeks. Deer damage continues to be a major problem especially on the broccoli and on the tomato plants. This is another consequence of the dry spring, as there is not as much for them to eat in the woods and field edges as there typically would be. The hayfield grasses are dry or have been cut, with little re-growth, and the deer are seeking anything with some moisture in it. Tomato plants are not really all that palatable, and I have never seen more than some occasional browsing in the past. This year I have a number of large plants that have been whittled down to nothing but stumps! We are rushing to put up the trellis netting for the tomatoes as this will impede there ability to move freely about the plants. I also have 2 beds of broccoli planted between 3 beds of tomatoes so the trellis will afford some protection to the broccoli as well. English peas are continuing to mature in abundance. Sugar snap and snow peas are beginning as well, but still in small quantities. It will most likely be a choice of pea varieties in this week’s share. We still have abundant amounts of lettuce, and there will be 2 heads of different types in the share. One is a beautiful deep red romaine named Outredgeous (As I suspected Word doesn’t like this spelling!) They are spectacular and quite large!

The share for this week will be: Broccoli, peas, scallions, choice of mustard greens or arugula, red leaf lettuce, red romaine lettuce, choice of salad turnips or radishes, choice of herb- parsley, cilantro, or dill.

Enjoy! John