Happy 4th of July week!
Yes, your farmers will be working this fourth of July week to continue to provide you delicious veggies!
Here's the important info:
Thursday Farm, Thursday Lakewood and Friday Farm pickups are happening as usual.
Saturday July 4th at LS is still on and is STILL at 2nd and Douglas this ONE LAST TIME AT THIS LOCATION before we move to Abundant Life on July 11th.
Saturday July 4th at OP IS MOVING with the OP market to the Matt Ross Community Center parking lots. This will continue to be a walk-up market but the market has to move because the convention center is opening up again and they need their lot back. So back to downtown OP but not at the pavilion quite yet.
If you are going out of town or get too busy setting up your semi-professional-and-not-so-endearing-to-the-neighbors fireworks display, it's no problem at all. Any shares leftover will go into the walk in cooler next to the house. When your ears stop ringing and you've washed off the powder burns, you can just drop by and find your share (as always, just leave the plastic crate and make sure to close the door..."don't let the bought air out!" like your dad used to say.) Come anytime before noon on Monday. Monday afternoon we donate lots of overzealously harvested veggies and your lonely leftover shares to area food pantries.
I hope you are noticing the changing of the seasons in your weekly shares. We put in the harvest estimates and got a chance to look over your shares and they're starting to look a little more like summer! The very first of the bell peppers and a few spicy peppers will be going out this week! Yeah! I know you love the red and yellow bells best of all, and they will be coming, but they take longer. Did you know yellow and red bells start out as green peppers and that green peppers are just unripe colored peppers? It takes several more weeks before they turn on the plants. We have to start harvesting the peppers as green ones at the beginning of the season to encourage the plants to produce more fruit. Too many big peppers on a small plant sucks away the energy, so we'll be picking them green for a while so that we can enjoy super sweet colored peppers a few weeks later.
Tomato production keeps increasing. We're almost to the point where everyone can get at least one portion of tomatoes. We still haven't started harvesting from outdoors yet so production is limited to what we can grow in the greenhouses. We know tomatoes are the most beloved of all, just remember we're just now getting to July. Most home gardeners don't start seeing tomatoes until after the 4th of July. (the only way we have them earlier is the greenhouses and actually with a cold spring, if you can remember that, put our outdoor tomatoes behind schedule).
This week basil is in abundance, in fact if you are one to make pesto, I'd suggest that you look into the extra large bags we are putting in extras this week. We can't guarantee how long basil will be doing well. There is a new disease, basil downy mildew, that came to Missouri just a few years ago. The last two years we had is decimate our basil. This year we're trialling some resistant varieties and so far so good, but the disease can strike fast and render it all unusable, so strike while the iron is hot and get your basil while you can!
Just a reminder we also have regular farm workdays on Monday mornings. If you'd like to come on out to help us harvest you can check it out here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/where-the-redfearn-grows-natural-farm-tickets-106761869626
Also we're doing a special evening work event on Tuesday June 30th 6:30 to 8:30 to finish the garlic harvest and spread organic mulch on the sweet potatoes. If you'd like to bring the whole family you can learn more here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/garlic-harvest-and-mulch-spreading-tickets-111379541206
If you'd like to get out to see your farm and get sweaty with your farmers it's a great way to do it. You are guaranteed to sleep well afterward and we won't even charge you for the core muscle workout!:)
We're so very grateful for you and your support of our farm! It's you that keeps us trudging along hoeing carrots int he heat of the day! Gotta make sure you get your veggies! Thanks for making our farm possible and we hope we are making great meals possible for you!
Your farmers,
Dave and Sheri
