It is Fourth of July weekend, but we are business as usual. The CSA will run normal hours, the Roadside Stands are open, and we will be at all our usual markets.
The other day Ciara was looking at our first tomatoes in the field --she said she was just LOOKING--when an almost ripe cherry tomato fell off the plant. So she had to eat it. And it was delicious. And I saw the first tiny threads of green beans growing out of the blossoms which means we are about ten days away from the first bean. And in the last week of June we harvested all of the garlic, with great focus and determination, dodging all the rain. I did a quick calculation (because it entertains me). If we had planted all that garlic in one row, it would have stretched for 2.4 miles. Now we have two greenhouses with tables full of garlic, drying out with fans and a shade cloth overhead.
During the first week of July we will start seeding all the fall brassicas in the part of the greenhouse that is not piled with garlic. We will plant cabbage, kale, kohlrabi, rutabaga, Chinese cabbage. Right now it might feel like you have been eating a lot of those foods lately but there will be a gap of several months while we grow the next round (they don't love the heat) and you will be ready for those hearty greens when the weather cools off again.
Usually we expect to see the first tomatoes around Week 8 but they might be a little delayed because we had a dramatic hailstorm on June 25 and it broke off the top branches of most of the oldest tomato plants. So now those plants have to grow some branches on the sides to keep going, and that will slow them down a bit. In the meantime, there is plenty to eat. We can wait.
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