The seasons might be shifting, but there's still lots of tasty treats in our fields and summer shares go until the fourth week of October. Anyone with a Traveller option (the 12 weeks) could end as early as mid-September. Remember you can check your upcoming deliveries anytime at https://www.harvie.farm/member/deliveries to see when your bags are scheduled.
In the gardens, some vegetables we eat (technically called fruits) have seeds inside like tomatoes, peppers and okra. Potatoes and garlic are both reproductive structures that are clones, which means their genes are identical to the plant they came from. Both actually produce seeds too (higher up on the plant) but if you plant them you'll get all different varieties of potato or garlic respectively. Some leafy plants like to flower quickly, like lettuces, cilantro, and radicchio so we're always trying to sell them before they put their energy into seeds which affects their flavour. Basil is a notable exception, we're all trained to pick off the flowers in home gardens, so that the plant continues to produce leaves. However, the flowers don't affect the flavour of Basil and I actually wait till I start to see flowers to harvest. The flowers tell me that the plant is as big as it can get, so that you get as many leaves as possible on your plant. Other vegetables like cabbages and beets are actually the storage form of the plant, designed to over winter (often in climates above zero) till the next year when they will produce seeds. Known as biannuals, they flower only in their second year and they just happen to be stellar winter storage crops!
While registration will be opening in the next few weeks for our winter shares, there's still bumper crops of fall treats in store over the next couple of months. The picture above includes our next round of zucchini, pattypans, kale, chard, radicchio, romaine heads... and more!
