Greetings,
We have arrived at box #10, meaning we are about halfway through the summer season. I thought it would be a good time for a quick update on some of the fall and winter crops. In the header image for this newsletter, you see one of our fall brassica plantings, containing storage cabbage and rutabaga, along with mid-season plantings of kale and broccoli. The dry weather has been good for minimizing disease spread, and so far we are seeing very little disease in these crops that we have historically struggled with. Let's hope that trajectory continues!
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Onions are now all harvested and curing in the greenhouse. We are trying out a new multi-layer drying system so we can capture as much airflow entering the greenhouse as possible (as opposed to spreading them out in a single layer on benches throughout the entire greenhouse). So far it seems to be working quite well. The yellow, sweet, and cipollini onions, as well as shallots, are probably 75% cured. Red onions are later maturing and we just harvested them yesterday and will need a couple weeks yet to fully dry.
Winter squash, despite being in great need of rain, is looking great with nice fruit set. Storage carrots germinated into a nice stand and have been growing quickly under regular irrigation. We planted the last of the storage crops last week - watermelon radishes and turnips. We are hoping for a nice rain this weekend. But NO HAIL PLEASE. We are approaching the 1 year anniversary of the 2020 hail storm - August 10th.
Notes on select items in this week's share:
- Sweet onions: These beauties are partly cured, not for long-term storage but fine to keep on your counter rather than in the fridge. Nice and mild in flavor. You may notice a tinge of green on some of them which can happen during curing in the greenhouse. There's no problem eating these and we've never noticed any sort of flavor effects.
- Sweet corn: We are really excited about this second planting that we will start picking in time for the next shares. At this point, we are seeing very low levels of earworm, so likely we won't have to slice the tips off too many. Nice and sweet and good pollination in the ears we've checked! We are upping the share amount from 3 ears to 4 ears this week.
- Little Gem head lettuce: These mini-heads are a new one for us. Expect a bag containing 2-4 small heads of red and green lettuce. Not quite as sweet in August as it would be in June or October, but tasty nonetheless. Make sure to separate the leaves from the core and rinse thoroughly prior to eating.
- Garlic: This 'German Extra Hardy' garlic is a hardneck variety with strong flavor and high sugar content, making it great for roasting.
- Tomatoes: We are finally hitting peak tomato season, with lots of ripening in all types of tomatoes. Enjoy!
- Cilantro: A wonderful pair with tomatoes, this is our most luscious cilantro of the season and bunches will be fairly large.
- Watermelon: We'll have just a small amount of watermelon available this week. They are seedless varieties, although you'll see some white membranous seeds along with an occasional black seed. The large variety is Sorbet and the small variety is Serval. Taste tests so far have been good!
- Cucumbers: I forgot to add this item into the main share build, so no one is getting this item in their share automatically. But it should be available for swapping in or as an extra. These cukes are coming from a fresh planting that is unfortunately still inundated by cucumber beetles which are quite challenging to manage organically. Peel them and you wouldn't know any different, but most to have some scarring from beetle feeding. We are valuing them lower accordingly.
What's coming up? Fresh planting of swiss chard and salad mix will be ready for box 11, along with yellow wax beans. We will likely have poblano peppers, parsley, and a few more watermelons.
Have a great week,
Dana
