Remember all the rain and flooding last week? I bet some of you wondered how the farm does with all that water.
Well, we are lucky that we have soil that drains easily so even though we received 5 ½ inches of rain we didn’t experience any flooding, no crops were washed out and no damage was done. The plants and the soil got a good soak and we didn’t need to turn on our irrigation for a few day. The only downside is that we have field work to do which we can’t do when it is so wet. We need to get caught up on planting our fall crops so that you will have vegetables in September and October.
This week is a great week for you because you are receiving a farm fresh, organically grown watermelon. Melons are grown like all the other squashes by seeding in trays in the greenhouse, transplanting out in the field on beds covered with black plastic and then covered with row covers. The plastic keeps the weeds down and the fabric row covers keep the destructive insects away. When the watermelon plants begin to flower we remove the row covers in order to promote pollination from bees and other beneficial insects. All in all it takes 80 days of growth, heat, water and nutritious soil to grow these delicious watermelons.
How to Store Your Watermelon:
Watermelons store best out of the refrigerator for up to a few days, and you can chill them right before you want to eat them. Prolonged exposure to cold temperatures will cause the flesh to become mushy, but once you cut into the melon, it must be refrigerated immediately. Cut melon will only last a day or two in the fridge.
I suggest eating it fresh and maybe using some cubed watermelon in a creative salad like this Tomato and Watermelon Salad.
