Have you seen the forecast? It's going to be hot! We're making efforts to prepare for the scorching heat. We tried to get as much greenhouse trellising and pruning work done as possible this week so we can stay out of there (besides harvesting) this coming week. Our work schedules are very weather dependent. We were blessed by some nice rainfall this past week, which we desperately needed, but then the heavy humidity and frequent minor sprinkles of rain kept the soil too wet to prepare. So now we've got a dilemma: the fall broccolini and Napa cabbages (thousands of them) are ready to transplant in the fields. We can prep the beds now, but with the extreme heat coming, do we go ahead and plant them or try to wait until cooler temperatures and some cloudy days? If the plants and soil had been ready, last week before the rains would have been perfect to get them in the ground and established. We watch the forecast but we can only see so far in advance. If we wait a week to plant them, the transplants could get oversized and root bound in their plugs and we aren't sure the following week's weather will be any better, plus, if we wait too long the plants may not have time to mature and yield a crop before fall frosts kick in and damage or kill the plants. So we make plans but we also make last minute judgement calls, like Patrick Mahomes calling an audible at the line. I'm not sure what we'll do, but I'm leaning toward going forward with the transplanting in the evenings, watering them well, and praying for some cloud-cover to prevent the precious plants from expiring before they get a chance to take root. That's just a little of the juggling we do every week to keep the veggies coming to you all.
Tomato Time
We're officially about to be overloaded with tomatoes, so we're making bulk boxes of tomatoes and bulk boxes of cracked/blemished tomatoes available this week. If you are thinking about canning tomato sauce or salsa, these next couple weeks are your best window to do that. Although we stagger our plantings to avoid a glut of tomatoes, in order to have enough for everyone, I think I over-planted this year, so there are tons and tons to go around! So the "seconds" tomatoes are imperfect, maybe cracked or blemished. They won't keep very long because of the imperfections and you'll probably have to cut out a spot or two, so they won't yield 100%. Just be forewarned that for the damaged tomatoes, you'll need to use them ASAP and be ready to cut out some spots, but that's why they're at a discount. We aren't intentionally sending out squishy gross tomatoes, but sometimes a crack that has healed up reopens and leaks a little juice. Also don't be shy about doubling/trippling up on cherry tomatoes. We're making the bags larger-sized again this week to use up more of the harvest. They are so delicious, we don't want them to go to waste!
Almost Pepper time.
Walking the fields we see a LOT Of sweet peppers starting to turn. We're upping the availability somewhat this week in anticipation but I think it will be next week before those peppers really start to yield abundant harvests. Once they do, we should be in pepper heaven for a couple months, so get ready!
Where are the beans?
For us, this has been a tough year for green beans. Just not enough moisture at the right times has caused poor germination on several of our green bean plantings. These rains, were really good to help prep the soil and we're about to do some really big bean plantings to make up for lost time. Also the pole beans are just starting to produce, so we anticipate bean production to slowly increase as they help make up for the bush beans.
Bread and Cheese
Farm to Market Sourdough Sliced, large loaf
Hemme Brothers Pizza Cheese block
Have a great week and enjoy some of those tomatoes!
Dave and Sheri
