Welcome to Week 8! The season is really starting to turn, with lots of summer crops coming in (finally!) and the start of winter seeding this week. We pulled the last of the garlic out of the field (about 2 weeks later than usual, due to the cold spring) and will be planting that area out into radicchio later this week.
Most of the crops have caught up with the warm weather and sunshine, but I'm feel unoptimistic about this year's melon and pepper crops. We just got both of these in the ground a little later then we should have and we have unintentionally cultivated a stellar crop of wireworm (an invasive pest originally from Asia that arrived in ballast water on shipping vessels) and other pests that nibble at plant roots. Long story short, these pests love organic matter and organic farms love building organic matter in the soil. Peppers and melons take awhile to start growing, plus combined with the cold spring, tricked me into thinking they were just being affected by the weather, not pests. As a farmer, I take crop failures kinda personally, so I am pretty sad when I whenever I look at the pepper tunnel. Luckily, we are a very diverse farm for reasons like this! While it might not be a pepper year, it's definitely been a good year for other crops like spinach and onions.
Veggies of the week:
First tomatoes are finally trickling in! Limited this week, but more soon.
Onions- we are starting to harvest the spring planted onions, starting with my personal favorite, the long red of tropea. Great for grilling!
New Potatoes- first dig of these! We had a terrible potato year last year, but these are looking so good! Love a redemption story.
