Saturday, July 31, 2010

2010 Season, Week Twelve

July 31, 2010 newsletter

This week's harvest:

Sweet Corn
Tomatoes
Sweet Peppers
Hot Peppers
Patty Pan Squash
Yellow Beans
Garlic
Onions
Cucumbers
Choice of Yellow Watermelon or "Halona" Muskmelon or Galia Melons

This week's farm news:

It was another sultry week. The high temperatures were consistently in the mid 90's. We had lots of small rain showers throughout the week that totaled around one inch. In between bouts of rain, the crew set out another round of fall transplants. They also had their work cut out for them trying to keep up with harvesting all the ripe tomatoes, musk melons, & watermelons. When we have to harvest crops early in the week - perishable stuff that won't hold until Saturday's market - we start canning & preserving the bounty to enjoy this winter. All of the interns have taken a turn canning quarts of tomatoes. We've also filled many freezer bags with melon to freeze for winter sorbets & Beth even loaded up her dehydrator with Galia melon slices! I'm excited to see how that turns out!

Eric's father (aka "Pap Pap") has been visiting this week. He & Eric have been working on adding a couple of solar panels (that were given to us!) to our solar system. They mounted them to the end of a cedar pole & everyone helped heave the pole up to a standing position beside our older panels so that they can all be wired together. Once it's all hooked up we should be able to harness twice as much solar energy!

Saturday, July 24, 2010

2010 Season, Week Eleven

July 24, 2010 newsletter

This week's harvest:

"Peace" Watermelons (yellow-fleshed)
Tomatoes
Sweet Peppers
Hot Peppers
Basil
Garlic
Onions
Okra
Patty Pan Squash
Cucumbers
Choice of Yellow Wax Beans, Galia Melons, and/or Sweet Corn

This week's farm news:

Don't forget that tomorrow, July 25, is our annual swimming party & potluck picnic! You can come anytime - there's no specific schedule. We'll probably eat early in the afternoon, then go for a swim, then for a farm tour (for those that are interested), then probably eat some more & swim some more. Or, who knows? If it is really nearly 100 degrees like the weatherman says it's supposed to be, maybe we'll just sit in the creek all afternoon! You can find directions to the farm on our website, www.bugtusslefarm.com. We hope to see you at the farm!

So this week on the farm it felt like a tropical rain forest. We had rain practically every day (totaling nearly four inches!) and it was so hot and muggy! We had some pretty intense thunderstorms with lots of lightning, too. The gardens were happy to get all that rain. Eric & crew had set out fall broccoli & cauliflower transplants, so they are settled in now. The young beans & snow peas that Eric sowed about a week ago are coming up nicely now. We also started fall kale, lettuce, & cilantro in soil blocks. Yeah! Fall crops are off to a good start!

Sunday, July 18, 2010

2010 Season, Week Ten

July 17, 2010 newsletter

This week's harvest:

Tomatoes
Patty Pan Squash
Basil
Garlic
Onions
Hot Peppers
Red Peppers or Zucchini or Cucumbers (small shares choose one, medium shares choose two)
"Peace" Yellow Watermelons for medium shares

This week's farm news:
Wow! Here we are at week 10 already! Halfway through the main summer season! The season is really zooming along for us this year. The tomatoes are really (finally) coming in now as are the melons. Next week we should see the second crop of sweet corn, yellow wax beans, cucumbers, & many more watermelons. This week we gleaned the very first of the watermelons & there were just enough for the medium shares but, no worries, next week everyone will get one!

We had a big group of farmers & their interns visit the farm on Wednesday. There were about 40 folks in attendance. We are part of a regional group of farmers that host these events so that our interns have a chance to meet interns from other farms as well as have exposure to other farms' management practices. Eric took all the visitors on an extensive farm tour with a few demonstrations along the way... Like our method of soil block making; various cultivating tools & techniques; & of course he showed the way we move our animals to a new paddock on a daily (or twice daily) pasture rotation. We finished up the tour at the swimming hole where everyone got revived before eating a big potluck feast!

Sunday, July 25
Swimming & Potluck Picnic at Bugtussle

Saturday, July 10, 2010

2010 Season, Week Nine

July 10, 2010 newsletter

This week's harvest:

Basil
Onions
Garlic
Patty Pan Squash
Zucchini and/or Eggplant
Tomatoes
Lettuce
Cilantro
Peppers - Hot

This week's farm news:

Every year, shortly after the summer solstice, the insects really turn up their volume... Actually, sometimes if feels like they are laughing at us! During the day it's the cicadas with their rattlesnake-like songs reminding us that it's hot & dry. During the night it's the katydids startling us from slumber with their abrupt "yank-yanks". In the garden the harlequin beetles & grasshoppers are just waiting for us to set out our luscious juicy succulent fall transplants - if the plants make it beyond the onslaught of flea beetles that found the shade house & thus began their feast on those just mentioned plants. Oh, & did I mention the flies? The flies like to remind us of every single spot & morsel of food that we failed to clean off the kitchen counters. Oh, the bugs. Maybe this lamentation sounds a bit like a complaint? To some degree it is as the bugs to represent one of my greater summertime challenges. But I'll take that challenge in exchange for all the unbelievable food that I get to enjoy every single day! Fresh tomatoes straight from the vine, crispy sweet red peppers, fat juicy watermelons, handfuls of blueberries here and there. While sitting here writing this & thinking about our food, I realize that now my mouth is watering & I've stopped itching all of my mosquito bites! The food makes it all bearable!

Reminder: Sunday, July 25
Swimming & Potluck at the Farm

Saturday, July 3, 2010

2010 Season, Week Eight

July 3, 1010 newsletter

This week's harvest:

Sweet Corn
Basil
Broccoli &/or Red or Green Cabbage
Zucchini &/or Eggplant
Lettuce (Tom Thumb or Jericho)
Yellow Squash
Hot Peppers
Tomatoes (just the beginning!)
Garlic
Onions

This week's farm news:

We had a little bit more rain move through our farm this week (2/10") and afer that the temperatures were drastically cooler than they had been. In fact, it was 54 degrees on our porch this morning. That's quite a change from last week when night-time temperatures never went below 70 degrees. It's so refreshing to not always feel sticky & coated in a layer of sweat!

The crew completed another round of garden cultivation this week after last week's heavy rainshower so the gardens look beautiful & well-tended. We have been enjoying our first tomatoes this week & made several small batches of salsa - one of our summertime staples! We're also enjoying the first round of sweet corn that you're getting in this week's basket. It was a fairly small patch so there's not a tremendous amount, nonetheless still a delicious treat. And a reminder... earworms love sweet corn as much as you & I, so if (when!) you find a worm in your corn just cut the tip off & you're good to go! (We use no chemicals in the growing of our crops & have found no feasible way to deter the hungry little critters.)

And finally, we would like to invite all of you to the farm on Sunday, July 25 for a potluck picnic/swimming party. Come for the day & see where your food is grown; meet the chickens, cows, sheep, pigs, turkeys, & ducks; & see our homestead where we live happily "off-the-grid", and, of course, we'll visit the swimming hole at the creek and share a delicious meal!