This past week was full of a variety of different tasks for our staff, but everyone's least favorite activity across the board is weeding our pineapple fields. Since pineapples are a perennial crop, we don't have to pay much attention to them throughout the year, unlike most of our annual crops that require pretty constant care. That being said, if a pineapple field goes untouched for about 6 months, even though they're planted on ground fabric, things get a little hairy... For whatever reason, in addition to pineapple plants being rather unpleasant to the touch, the worst weeds seem to end up growing in these fields. Tan-tan that requires a pick axe to remove, burrs, thistle, you name it, it all ends up in the pineapple field. It's understandable that this is the dreaded task, however once you are finished freeing up all of the plants and get to look back at all of the little pineapples coming in, it's pretty rewarding. At least I like to tell myself this while nursing my cuts and scrapes.
Aside from pineapple weeding, we also got a new plot of ginger planted, collected lots of mulch and bulk harvested our watermelon field. We hope everyone enjoyed their watermelon last week, we will have much more to come in the next few weeks so get excited. We also have lots of greens this week such as baby arugula that has just started to come in and some baby asian greens that have also just about reached maturity. Sounds like the makings of a nice salad. Last Saturday at the Slow Down dinner, Andy and I served a grilled watermelon salad and I highly recommend trying it yourself. Throw a little Fiddlewood Farms goat cheese on there and you have yourself a first rate salad.
While we all sit back and wait for the pineapples to ripen and those cute little flowers on the mango trees to turn into fruit, we hope to provide you all with some tasty vegetables, fruits and herbs in the meantime. If you need a little more farm goodness in your life, stop by the Farm Tienda and see what Saerah has been cooking up. If you're really feeling the farm food, consider joining us for a Slow Down Dinner up at the farm. We will be having one this coming Saturday as well as two Saturdays in March that will be announced via email. We hope to see you there!
Elizabeth and the Farm Crew
