Your Share this Week
Beans – Jade
Broccoli – Blue Wind, Packman
Potatoes – Norland
Onions – Sierra Blanca
Snap Peas – Cascadia
Kohlrabi – Winner, Kolibri
Radish – Rover
Beets – Red Ace
Chinese Cabbage – The Blues
Green Cabbage – Primax
Summer Squash – Cash Flow, Cavelli, Slick Pick,
Spineless Beauty, Sunburst, President
Cilantro – Santo
Basil – Genovese
What else is there to say? It is soooooooooooo hot. It is hot everywhere, but at the farm in the heat, the veggies keep growing, the weeds keep growing, the critters still need to be fed and watered and milked and it is sooooooo hot. Once again this week, we’ve been splitting up our day, working in the morning as much as we can, then taking off the afternoon and working again in the evening. Most afternoons, we head down to the Sunrise River
Last Thursday after most of us returned to the farm from delivering your veggies, we first watched the first half of the Harry Potter movie (from netflix) to prep ourselves and then we all went to the air conditioned comfort of the North Branch movie theater and saw the midnight movie. The movie theater has been one of the top choices for afternoon places for our interns to go to get cool after sweaty mornings and sweaty evenings.
The weather, like any year is a challenge for the growing of veggies. The cabbages that were looking so promising, have nearly all gotten some sun scald. This happens when it rains, the sun shines and the weather is hot. It makes the tops of the cabbages look like they have been poached, and then as the cabbage continues to grow, the inside of the cabbage has layers of dried – or sometimes not so dried – brown leaves. We are sending you cabbages this week knowing that many of them will have these layers of scalded leaves in them. The best way to use them is to cut the cabbage in half, take out the bad parts and use the rest. We’ve been enjoying a variety of slaws all week using all of the cabbage family- Chinese cabbage, green cabbage, kohlrabi, broccoli, turnips and radishes.
All of the rest of the bok choi has begun bolting. This cool season crop thinks it is too hot and has decided to make a jump start on blooming and producing seed. So no more bok choy – I know, I know, some of you are saying YIPPEE!!
Many of the earliest of the peppers are also showing some sun scald. Hopefully the weather is going to modify and the later peppers, eggplants and tomatoes will look good. The cantaloupe and watermelon plants look great with a lot of little melons peeking out of the vines. And the potatoes – well the potatoes look great and are producing like crazy!
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| One day old chick, the bird, not Liz |
On Monday morning, sweating all the while, we made new enlarged pens for the adult sheep, the turkeys, and the teenage male chickens we call the Barracanas because they are a cross between Aracana and Barred Rock parents. Everyone seems quite happy in their new bigger pens and it is easier for us to keep enough water available for them. The Bourbon Red turkeys seem very happy in their forest of huge lambs quarters (a weed) as it gives them shade and food all at the same time.
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| Good thing we're farmers and not jugglers. But these were the perfect size to give potato juggling a try. |
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| Liz in front of her Yurt. Small but homey |
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| Emily and her Quonset |
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| Susie's camper..luxury? |
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| Holly's not home today. |
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| Robin and Emily playing zucchini baseball.....The ball is a potato, the bat is a zucchini. Don't worry. After the game, we put these two veggies in the pig pen, not in a share. |
