What's new on the farm? Well, you could say that every day is a new day, and days in August seem to be jam-packed with action. The winter squashes are starting to ripen, the fall carrots are growing before our eyes, the brussel sprouts are doing their best to take advantage of the sunshine, and the cabbages are coming in strong. Time for some homemade sauerkraut?
Potato harvest has begun! As we make potatoes available to you in your weekly share, you may notice (if it's your first year with our farm share program) that, generally speaking, the potatoes will be:
delicious!
not big!
have some cosmetic blemishes at times!
store best in the fridge!
very very tasty!
Why all this information? Here in Pemberton, we take our potatoes quite seriously as they are a real source of pride. Because of the great potato-growing soil, weather, and location, many other farms in the valley grow seed potatoes (potatoes for other farmers and gardeners to plant) as a primary crop. To help keep potential potato plant diseases out of the area (which would jeopardize the health of the seed potato crops), organic mixed vegetable farms like ours take some key steps.
For example, because we do not use any synthetic chemicals to control pests, we harvest our potatoes in August before the aphids set in. This keeps them on the smaller side, and also means that taste is at it's best. There are no perfect organic controls for wireworm, so while we do our absolute best there will inevitably be some blemishes on the skins. We see less wireworm damage every year, as it does improve over time with good organic farming methods. Because we try to harvest them as quickly as we can (to avoid them getting munched by bugs), the skins are not thick at this point, and that is why we recommend keeping them in the fridge. That's the potato talk folks...if you have any questions about how to best enjoy your spuds, just ask!
Potatoes aside, the rest of the farm is doing well. One of our horses, Prince, gave himself a bruise while out in the field last week, but it's been healing up well and he's had a week off to rest. Keisha has been stepping up her farm-dog duties as we start to see more deer and bears hanging around, looking for tasty food sources, and she's been chasing them out of the veggie patch and back into the nearby woods.
So that's the news. We hope you are enjoying the sunshine, eating lots of veggies, and thank you for being part of our farm-ily!
Naomi and the Four Beat Farm team
