Farm Happening for August 2, 2021
Admin
Frig door alarms--there are buzzers installed on the refrigerator doors to help as a reminder to shut the doors if they are left open. They are triggered after the door is open for 20 seconds. Shut and open it again if you need extra time. There is a button on the side of the alarm (visible when the door is open) to turn off the buzzer if it goes off or it will go off on its own. Hope this helps solve the problem, but I also hope it doesn’t alarm you too much.
Reminder: Pickup days are Thursdays and Fridays, 9-7pm. As a backup day, you can come Saturday 9-5pm if you need it. If you can't make it one of those three days, know that we are donating the produce to a good cause and set your sights on your next pickup. You have until Tuesday night (technically cuts off Wed 7am) to hold your share to pick up a different week.
Tomatoes
It’s the time to indulge. Heirloom tomatoes are the best! We grow heirlooms and a couple wonderful red varieties. We are well known in Frederick for our tomatoes. You can add extra tomato boxes and ten pound tomato flats from the Extras list on Harvie. We are selling the ten pound flats at wholesale prices. (But keep in mind: they are local, heirloom, certified organic, so they are more expensive than many comparisons.) We grow many more tomato plants than we need for CSA, counting on the extra income from tomato sales. Our heirlooms are for sale at The Common Market for $4.99/pound. As CSA members, you get a great deal. When you want extra tomatoes, please shop our Extras Sale for boxes and flats at wholesale rates.
What’s Growing On
August is a time of peak bug pressure on vegetable plants. Squash bugs are one of the biggest challenges. They can devastate squash and cucumber plants. We have learned to work with them, by keeping our squash and cucumber plants away from each other and by planting a second row of them in a different area. We are starting to harvest our second rows of zucchini and cucumber plants. The cucumber plants look challenged by the heat and drought but we’ll try to nurture them along to continue offering cucumbers a bit longer. The second planting is often tricky for cucumbers. We’ve started digging potatoes. We tried a new variety this year called Gold Gem. We will start harvesting our Kennebec potatoes soon. It’s a Maryland heritage variety and buttery smooth.
Emily’s Stand
The Giant sunflowers are beginning to bloom. These are the tall ones. Behold the beauty! Emily's Stand is a memorial sunflower patch, grown with love. Read the story of Emily’s Stand here: http://blog.houseinthewoods.com/2019/07/13/emilys-stand/
Mother Earth News and your farmers
Why am I always posting Mother Earth News links? Here is a bit of background on that. In 2012, I was invited to write blogs for Mother Earth News. A senior editor had “discovered” my little blog at blog.houseinthewoods.com! In 2013, they named our family Homesteaders of the Year and we gained some quirky fame and a lot of publicity around that. You can see the article from the magazine on the Veggie Shed wall or read it here community-building-homesteaders. We also started giving presentations at MEN Fair in Pennsylvania and spoke in front of large audiences about gardening and farming for about five years. I still write blogs for MEN occasionally. I love to write and teach; I can do both when I write blogs about farming and homesteading. Enjoy some reading and know that you are sharing your farmers with thousands of readers via Mother Earth News.
