Greetings,
The big farm projects this week were our first wholesale chile harvest (see headline image) and mass harvest of our onion crop, which looks much nicer than last year's. We have yellow storage, red storage, cipollini, and sweet onions, plus a small amount of shallots. They'll be curing in the greenhouse for the next 2+ weeks before settling into dry storage.
We are still in serious drought at the farm. All storm systems the last 2-3 weeks have missed our farm, so crops have been entirely reliant on irrigation. We are glad to have an irrigation well and be able to keep most fields watered (albeit with extra labor and electricity usage), but there are plenty of peripheral plantings that aren't practical to irrigate that could use a good soaking. And I see no rain in the 10 day forecast, so we're settling in for the long haul.
Even in the heat of summer, our sights are also set on winter, and all of our fall storage crops are now planted. Carrots were planted a little over three weeks ago and germinated very well under frequent irrigation. Beets were seeded two weeks ago and also appear to be off to a good start. This week, we seeded watermelon radishes and turnips, along with our first fall spinach.
We are due to share another family update with you all: we are expecting our second child in early September! Karin is doing well and hardly letting her expanding belly stop her from relentless gardening around the farmstead. We are excited for the new baby to come into the world while summer abundance still surrounds us. It will, however, make for a delicate balance for me (Dana) to be present with and supportive of Karin, Ani, and baby during such a busy part of the season. September is the confluence of summer and fall crops, with tomatoes, peppers, and other warm-season crops still producing, but spinach, winter squash, and other fall crops entering the picture. Plus we expect to be harvesting many thousands of pounds of hot peppers weekly in September. In the photo below, Karin is planting a pollinator garden during a 95° evening at the farm this past week
But with a busy late summer on the horizon, we are excited to introduce a new member of our farm crew, Zviad (Tato) Chakhnashvili, who arrived one week ago from Georgia (the country). Tato is participating in the MAST International training program, like Godfrey and Michael (2020) and Vini, Alex, and Roman (2019). He grew up on a family farm and is excited to bring some skills acquired at our farm back to Georgia. We will introduce Tato more fully with a bio in the next couple of weeks.
Notes on select items in this week's share:
- Melons and Sweet Corn: Same quality notes as last week (here's a link to the previous newsletter, in case you didn't read it).
- Beets: This week, we are offering a mix of standard red and Touchstone Gold beets, which have milder flavor and a bit more sweetness than reds.
- Eggplant: These 'Diamond' eggplants (which many of you received last week) are a new-to-us open-pollinated Italian type that we are liking so far. They mature at a smaller size than the varieties we've grown in the past, close in size to Asian eggplants. For this reason, we're offering them in shares in increments of two.
- Mini Sweet Peppers: These red and orange mini-bells have fairly small seed cavities and are a great "lunchbox" pepper to snack on. We have modest availability this first week, but expect to have much more in the weeks to come.
- Colored Bell Peppers: We have a smattering of ripe red, yellow, and orange bell peppers ripening that we are excited to share with you next week. Like the mini sweets, these are just starting to ripen and should be much more abundant in a couple weeks.
- Green Beans: This may be our final week with green beans, so enjoy them while they are here! We do have another planting of yellow wax beans that should be 2-3 weeks away. Because we loaded many of you up with lots of beans last week, we decreased the planned bag size (and its corresponding value) to 3/4 lb for next week.
- Tomatoes: We are finally seeing the summer jump in tomatoes, with a several-fold increase in the last couple days, so they should be more widely available in shares this week. Heirloom bags will generally be 1-2 tomatoes, depending on size.
- Basil is booming and the time is ripe for tomato-mozz-basil appetizers and pesto. Note we also have basil available in more economical 1/2 lb bags as extras for those of you wanting to do some processing. If you are interested in a larger volume (several lbs or more), send us an email and we can arrange it.
What's on the horizon? For week 10, we expect
- our second planting of sweet corn to be ready
- Little Gem-type mini lettuce heads (a new, experimental crop for us that's currently looking beautiful)
- garlic will be fully cured and ready for shares
Have a great week-
Dana
