Today as our harvest wound down and half the crew started packing CSA boxes, a few of us began transplanting lettuce and spinach. This area of the garden we were working in had grown a spring crop of herbs and greens, and after a fallow period under a tarp we spread more compost yesterday and tilled it in. By the end of the afternoon today, we had set out 1800 baby plants - enough for abundant fall salads!
Are you loving the summer heat?? My amazing crew of interns and volunteers is working really hard and staying positive even when the temperatures soar. Really, we have it pretty good. West Coast heat waves are nothing compared to the heat of BC's interior valleys or the combo of heat and humidity on the prairies where I grew up. And it cools down at night - coastal swelter is so tame! Still, temperatures above 25 C at mid-day leave humans and veggies alike feeling a bit drained and dehydrated. So we drink as much water as possible as we work, and we keep sprinklers and drip lines going at maximum capacity (for our well) all day long. We have sandy, rocky soil and without water, you'd get nothing in your shares. We literally could not grow food on this land without irrigation!
We hope you are still enjoying zucchini. The plants are slowing down just a bit, and will keep slowing down in the days ahead, but for now, we are happy to keep enjoying the zuke blessing (as I prefer to think of it - though some call it a curse). I've made zucchini brownies a couple times lately, but a CSA member sent me a link to one of the most unusual zucchini treatments I've ever come across - zucchini gummy candy. This may not be the healthiest way to use up fresh garden produce, but it made me laugh and I'm pretty sure my kids would go for it!
