Melon season has begun. This week, some of you will have melons in your boxes and we'll definitely put more in next week. Melons can be a fickle crop, you turn your back for one minute and all the sudden hundreds of pounds are ripening all at once. It's a relatively short season, but does last several weeks because we stagger three different plantings spaced a couple of weeks apart. The trick with melons on our scale is to grow a very tasty varieties and to pick them at optimum ripeness -- that way your customer base gets a real treat that's often much better than they expected!
With the start of melons ripening, we begin doing the 'melon machine' several times a week to grid through the melon patch checking for ripe melons. We don't want to miss any both because of lost sales but also because an overripe melon is a nasty bee attractant in the field and we certainly don't need that in an already bad year for yellowjackets! We like to grow varieties that 'slip' from the vine when ripe, they literally pop off the vine with just a little bit of disturbance or tugging. And you know a melon is ripe if you can smell melon when you sniff the area that separated from the vine.
Remember to swing by your pick up location this week to grab your produce box. We look forward to seeing you at pick up!
We're putting the word out, our CSA Member Appreciation Day out at the farm will be the afternoon of Friday, September 6th. We hope that many of you will be able to visit the farm, take a tour, and see where your produce has been coming from this year. Mark your calendars!
Cheers, Bonnie & Rudy
