We are loving the heat!! And the gardens are too!
It's been hitting 30 or better nearly every day...and it is showing up in the gardens. The crops are starting to come nicely. There is a bit more variety entering the weekly baskets.
Remember last year when there was no potatoes and no beets?? This year the potatoes are doing better than ever. I pulled a few of the early reds today and was amazed to see them at the 3 - 4 inch size already. It looks like we could mow the tops off soon already so that they start to skin over. Speaking of skin over - that is the reason your potatoes have been dirty so far this year. The skins are so thin that if we would wash them they would be skinless in short order. And once the skins come off they have no protection and start to spoil that much faster. So therefore - we have given you a little extra dirt - so that you can gently wash them right before cooking to keep them in the best condition as long as possible. We hope you are enjoying the little gold nuggets ( I know we sure love a pan of fresh spuds!!) We might start digging some of the red potatoes this week - but probably not till the later part of the week (because the pivot is going on them now - and that would be a muddy job for Monday!!)
The beets are another success over last years' failure. We stepped out on a chance that transplanting them would work and so far it looks like they are rewarding us for that. They are growing quickly now and the tops are still beautiful! Did you know that the tops can be chopped into a salad or stirfried?? No use wasting those precious greens;)
The first of the cauliflower and broccoli are also showing their beautiful heads in the gardens. Many of the cauliflower have been wrapped (elastics around the leaves to keep the heads nice and white while they grow) -but I did find enough to steal from the garden for a salad for dinner!! The broccoli are coming - so far it has been the broccolini (a mix of broccoli and asparagas - very edible stems ) but now we are getting ready to start harvesting the full sized heads within the next week or two.
It sure feels good to see some nice progress in the gardens. And it also felt awesome to receive all the kind notes of encouragement from many of you last week. We are thankful for all your support and look forward to serving you lots of delicious veggies for many more weeks yet!!
Enjoy the heat - remember it's helping the gardens grow your veggies!!
