Making gladiolus and dahlia bunches is a nice end to the day on Wednesdays! Our glads are starting to slow down as most of them have bloomed (they are a one cut type of flower), but our dahlias are really ramping up (when you cut a dahlia, the plant bushes and grows more!). So we should be able to keep some color coming until the first frost puts an end to that.
We started digging our potatoes this week and are so far really happy with the yields. We've gotten into the Adirondack Blues (purple potatoes) and Norland Reds. We figure we're about 1/3 of the way through potato digging, so hopefully we can complete that task in the next week. You'll start to see potatoes as an option in our harvest estimate next week! It sure doesn't feel like it yet, but it's time to start preparing for fall. We will still be planting a few things outside, but for the most part, we need to be transitioning our seeding and transplanting to our covered hoop houses that will offer more protection when (if?!) the cool down starts. In fact, we'll only be planting things at all for a few more weeks, other than a few exceptions - microgreens, garlic in October.
We are tomato heavy right now, and we'll be offering a special for those feeling saucy! We're offering 10# flats of our Amish Paste roma tomatoes for $20, or 20# flats for $35. Romas are a good tomato for making sauces or salsas because they are a bit pastier. Other tomatoes work fine too, but you'll have a wetter consistency unless you boil off some of the extra tomato juice. We have several of these available, but they'll be on a first come first served basis. So if you'd like one, send us an email (info@hootowlfarm.net) and we'll confirm with you that we'll have them for you at your pick up.
Look forward to seeing you all either at the market tomorrow or the farm on Friday!
Cheers, Rudy & Bonnie
PS. Since tomatoes are the name of the game, also wanted to pass along a great way to use up some extra tomatoes now to enjoy them later in the deep dark winter. Roasted freezer tomatoes...you add some olive oil and spices to the tomatoes, roast them at a low temperature in the oven (mash them up or leave as is), and freeze them in Ziploc bags or other container of your choice. Thank you to Tammy who gave us the idea, after looking at our absolute abundance of cherry tomatoes! These freezer bags of goodness will bring a splash of sunshine to many winter meals - soups, sauces, pizzas, etc. Any type of tomato will work here, but we think our cherry tomatoes or cherry roma tomatoes (Juliettes) are especially suited since they are small without much of a core.
