It has been an amazing, wonderful week at Nitty Gritty Dirt Farm. Gorgeous weather –not too hot, not too cold, so much work accomplished, so much laughter in the fields and around the table, and beautiful fields and the beginning of the ‘real’ harvest. As I reflect on this week, it is so obvious how the fickleness of the weather affects the mood of the farm and the farmers. As we were picking sugar snap peas this evening for tomorrow’s shares, I was reminded of the hail storm three years ago that damaged and destroyed nearly all the crops of our CSA – absolutely heartbreaking. More than in any other job, it seems that everything we do is completely dependent on the weather, and we are grateful for a whole week of sunshine, no rain, light breezes and cool nights.
We spent Monday and Tuesday catching up on weeding. Because of the rain keeping us out of the fields, the weeds had grown alarmingly. Thank goodness for the rain softened ground that made them fairly easy to pull. Wheelbarrow loads later (very happy laying hens), the onions, flowers, carrots, beets, cabbage, broccoli, kohlrabi and potatoes are weeded. And our neighbor Scott from whom we buy old hay for mulch brought six bales on Tuesday which we promptly spread on the rest of the beans, between the zucchini rows and most of the potatoes. The fields look absolutely beautiful!
We also spent this afternoon (Wednesday) weeding at the Stark Vineyard. We have just been a mob weeding crew!
With all the strawberries we picked last week, the interns and we mixed up a few batches of strawberry jam, strawberry rhubarb jam and strawberry wine. We hope you enjoyed your berries as much as we did ours.
Prepping the Kohlrabi
Our first load of hay arrived this afternoon, so as soon as we finished harvesting the peas, bok choi and kohlrabi this evening, we unloaded and stacked the 140 bales into the barn. It is always a heavy, hot, sweaty job, but with eight of us working, it was accomplished quickly. It is a good feeling to know that at least a part of our winter food supply for the livestock is safely stored away.
Until next week…
Robin
A wheelbarrow load of Bok Choy
What’s in your share?
Sugar Daddy sugar snap peas
Kohlibri purple kohlrabi
Mei Qing Choi bok choi
Salad mix (lettuces: red romaine, summer bibb, freckles, simpson) (greens: mizuna, tatsoi, red and green mustards, Red Russian kale, arugula) Bulls blood beet greens, pea shoots,
Herbs: Genovese basil
A beautiful salad for lunch at the farm
