New this Week: Shallots, Walla Walla Sweet Onions, Arugula Microgreens, and Rosemary
This Week at the Farm:
With two solid rains in the last week, the plants are feeling a bit better! We sure are tired though! The heat and humidity makes everything more difficult.
We continue with the usual farm struggles - the walk-in cooler cooling unit iced over, a flat tractor tire (nail!), flea beetles in the arugula, more squash unhappiness, and the heat has caused some crop loss associated with lettuces and broccoli. We're disappointed that the spring broccoli crop has been so light and small, but this one was completely out of our control. We will plant more broccoli for the fall since we know this one is a member favorite, and we'll see what the weather throws at us.
On the bright side, cucumbers and tomatoes love this heat, and so we picked loads and loads of cucumbers! We also harvested the first of our mixed cherry tomatoes, and some of you lucky folks were the first to see those in your shares. We're setting a CVO record this year for the earliest date a field tomato was picked - July 1st! We also picked a couple of early slicing tomatoes last week.
The next few weeks will be all about onion family crops, also known as the Alliums. This week, we will finish harvesting the rest of the garlic and shallots, and start harvesting some onions. The onions got a really good start this season with the cool spring and lots of rain (and snow), but the last month has been rough due to low moisture. We're still looking forward to a pretty good harvest though! We are growing a variety of different onions, including varieties Blush, Cabernet, Walla Walla, and Cortland.
We'll also be doing the last of the squash and cucumber plantings for the year this week, along with seeding fall Brassica crops, such as broccoli, kale, cabbages, and collards (It can't be time for this already?!?!) Have a great week!
Farm Partner Feature
This week, we continue with blueberries from Woolf Farms in our farm shares! Woolf Farms is a third generation family fruit farm located in Columbiana County, Ohio. To learn more about Woolf Farms, check out their webpage: https://woolffarms.co/
If you have any questions, please reach out to jodi@cherryvalleyorganics.com or to support@harvie.farm at any time. Thank you for being a farm share member this year!
Jodi, Emily, Annie, Allie, Heather, Bo, Meghan, Nicole, and Vanessa
The CVO Team
