Let’s talk about growin’!
Continuing on with the cool, quiet morning trend this week, the weather took toward the dreary and the drizzly. After all the rain that went down over the weekend, Monday still greeted us with more showers. Farmer Zach always does his best to throw us a couple of projects that keep us from getting pelted and drenched first thing on mornings like this, but it still remains that Mondays and Tuesdays are for harvesting in the field.
The potatoes have gotten bigger! Woohoo! Kimberly and I harvested two beds of potatoes, and boy have they just carried on growin’ in the dirt since their first harvest a couple of weeks ago. Potatoes are a great task for rainy conditions. Not only have many potatoes been increasing in size, making them easier to spot in the leaf mulch, but rainy conditions also make for a far easier sorting in general.
The big surprises didn’t stop there! We made it over to the scallions later that day and found some real monsters. Scallions get scary big before you know it. If you were wondering why your bunch size varies from week to week, it’s because we can source scallions from a single bed for weeks before we move onto the next one.
We typically shoot for a similar bunch size each week, counting out different quantities each time we make a pass. However, they really do get comically huge, at which point we get a little more generous with the bunches we are able to give you with your shares. What are we supposed to do, not give you a generous helping of scallions with your share when we can?
Along the same lines, purslane don’t quit with conditions like this! I made a mental note to keep a wire hoe close in the coming weeks just in case I need to spot-weed. Purslane may be beneficial on your plate, but it sure can take up a lot of space very quickly if you aren’t careful; after all, it is a weed. In just a few short days, a patch of purslane pounced upon four brand new beds of newly planted beets, swallowing them up whole. Four whole beds! You may have thought this was a purslane farm if you had seen what I saw.
Speaking of removing plants from the ground, we were able to make some time on Wednesday to take out all of the sweetheart cabbage plantings that had been cropped out just last week. Did you know that cabbage plants will proceed to produce little baby cabbages after you have collected their first harvest? Now that’s what I call growin’!
Yep, as long as there is rain, plants never get sick of growin’. I’m talking about the beets, kohlrabi, and turnips that can turn monstrous in the blink of an eye if you aren’t being mindful, but I’m also talking about the volunteer plants that persist year after year.
Like the kale that came up in the carrot beds we are currently harvesting from because we left their roots from last year in the soil. Or the volunteer cherry tomatoes I have been frequenting in hoop two for the last couple of weeks, where there are no active plantings taking place at this time. Not to mention the asparagus that grew up freely back in May, and has been doing so ever since Farmer Jeff’s grandma lived on the farm decades ago. Need I say more? Plants just like growin’!
And what happens when things grow bigger? They tend to grow heavier. Anyone reading this who gets a regular share knows what I’m talking about. Folks, the bins are growin’ heavier. We’ve got big, 3L jugs of milk, three varieties of heavy melons, and…. sweet corn! Woohoo!
That’s right, the variety of offerings you are seeing on Harvie every week just keeps on growin’, which means you might just have to throw some stuff you aren’t familiar with in your cart and see what happens. Or just give some stuff away as a gift! I rolled up to my final home delivery stop on Thursday night to find a CSA customer literally dancing on the edge of her driveway. We took a look at her share together, and one of the first things she mentioned was that she couldn’t wait to give away some of her groceries to her neighbors.
And there’s plenty more growin’ to do out here yet this growing season! Fall crops are still going into the earth, so I hope you’re growin’ fond of these cabbages!
-Alex
