Happy Monday! A lot of folks were on a vacation week from their Farm Shares last week, so we'll repeat some updates here:
As part of our self-imposed obligation to advocate on a federal level for Organic farming, we were delighted to host our Congresswoman Abigail Spanberger (VA-07) for a recent two hour visit and tour of our farm! She serves on the House Agriculture Committee and wanted to learn more about what farms like ours need (organic research!) and how we work. The clouds parted for a time, allowing a delightfully sunny visit. She asked questions, she took notes, and it was a complete joy to share our farm with her. After she and her staff drove away, it started raining again. :)
Rain and weather update: When areas of our county experience such damaging and dangerous flooding, our perspective on the recent weather shifted to gratitude for our healthy and safety. But obviously there are impacts on the plants on our farm. We've now had at least 15 inches of rain in the past two and a half weeks. Plants generally like 1 inch per week. We're averaging almost an inch per day. So, some plants here on our farm are starting to drown. Eggplants are suffering from this cool rainy spell, and we hope Lettuce doesn't rot between today and tomorrow when we harvest them for you. If you've been wondering why there hasn't been the option for Green Beans in your share recently, it's because 1,400 bed feet of green bean plants have been mostly ruined by the rain. The plants aren't completely dead yet but the majority of the fruits are rotting right at fruit set. See below. You have to look closely -- see the teeny tiny baby green bean with the rotten and fuzzy end? Oof.
Back to good news! Our sweet pepper plants and basil plants are healthy and productive for now, and despite a sudden and perplexing deer invasion (how are they getting in or over the fence??) in which they have mowed down 300 cucumber plants, we have a nice flush of cucumbers for you this week. And we still have Tomatoes rolling in. All these combined with our Bread makes a delicious Panzella Salad. So, so delicious!
Shishito Peppers (frying peppers...meant to be cooked whole in a saute pan with oil and salt until blistered) are producing beautifully right now (see cooking guidance here) so eat them up! Flowers are holding their own for now, so we have petals to light up your home.
Crop updates: Our Salad Mix is out of season for the month of August, but we've spent the past six years trialing methods for having Lettuce to harvest in August. Last year was our first year with the results that we wanted, and we scaled it up this year so that we have hundreds of heads available to harvest in the latter half of August. (Granted, rain was also needed to allow these plants to stay alive, and we got it, which was great, and now the tender leaves are having a hard time not rotting. Wow!)
For more good news: Our adopted kittens are doing very well, having doubled in size and captured the hearts of us all. We've named them after our favorite red and orange pepper varieties. The grey cat is Carmen/Carmyn and the orange-ish one is Escamillo. Technically, they each have double names: Pixie Carmyn, and Lavender Escamillo. We love long names around here. :)
We'll keep you posted on what the next week brings! Thank you for being an absolutely critical part of our farm!
Blessings on your meals, and keep masking up and washing your hands ~
