Sunday, June 29, 2014

2014 Season, week 8

June 28, 2014

This week's harvest:
Cabbage (Savoy type)
Lettuce - medium shares
Carrots
Beets
Green Beans
Yellow Crookneck Squash (and a few Zucchini)
Cucumbers
Basil
Tomatoes (just a few)
Garlic
Hot Peppers

This week's farm news:

We had a few very brief rain showers on the farm this week. Soil conditions are verging on the dry side at this point... Rain is in the forecast, though, and I can hear distant thunder, so I am hopeful.

Let's see... Otherwise on the farm we did lots of weeding, mowing down of spent crops, and more weeding! Jesse yanked out the pea trellises and Eric continued with his very cool mulching project: he sowed buckwheat heavily (as a cover crop) in between the rows of melons. Now that it is about 3'-4' tall, and the melons are ready to vine out, he is unrolling big bales of hay over the buckwheat so that the melons can vine. Talk about some serious soil building! So now let's hope for some awesome melons! The first planting is flowering prolifically now, so it won't be too long...

Sunday, June 22, 2014

2014 Season, week 7

June 21, 2014

This week's harvest:
Green Beans
(Fresh!) Garlic
"Yellow Crookneck" Squash
Carrots
Beets
Red "Cipollini" Onions
Cucumbers
Broccoli
Basil

This week's farm news:

Happy Solstice, friends! Summer is officially here! The weather this week was very summerlike, too, requiring lots of trips to the creek to cool off!

The big news this week is that we brought a new milk cow, her name is Lilly, onto the farm. She was an incredibly generous gift from some dear friends that have their hands full with several other milk cows, and they wanted Lilly to go to a good home and be well-tended and loved. We can do that! Lilly integrated with our other cows and all of our sheep with no problem. Now once she calves, which will be in just a few weeks, we'll be blessed with fresh milk. Holy cow! (Sorry - couldn't help it!)

We started pulling the garlic crop this week. So this week in your baskets you're getting the delicacy of very fresh, very juicy, amazing garlic. We hope you enjoy...

Sunday, June 15, 2014

2014 Season, week 6

June 14, 2014

This week's harvest:
"Yellow Crookneck" Squash
Carrots
Swiss Chard
Basil
Beets
Shelling Peas
Broccoli
Cilantro
Red Cipollini Onions *use like a green onion
Garlic Scapes - free choice

This week's farm news:

Lots more rain on the farm this week. And many days when it wasn't raining, the skies were gray and the days felt sleepy. Work in the gardens was limited because of the wet conditions, but there's always plenty of other tasks and the animal chores to keep us busy. We integrated our young pullets and goslings in with our laying flock, and so far that seems to be going smoothly. I was eager for them to be together so that two separate chores became one. It saves a little time each day now!

We also took a day trip to our dear friends' farm (Hill and Hollow Farm) for the first CRAFT (Collaborative Regional Alliance for Farmer Training) event of the season. It's an opportunity for interns and young aspiring farmers to get to visit and tour farms in the region. We all had a great time and shared a fabulous meal topped off with hand-cranked ice cream. Ahh, summer! We'll host our own event in August. I met such wonderful folks that I look forward to the next gathering!

Tuesday, June 10, 2014

2014 Season, week 5

June 7, 2014

This week's harvest:
*Shelling* Peas
Carrots
Garlic Scapes
Swiss Chard
"Sweet Valentine" Lettuce
"Crookneck" Summer Squash
Basil
Cilantro
Kohlrabi
Salad Turnips - free choice

This week's farm news:

Well, another week has flown right on by! We had several more rain showers this week which kept the gardens moist and the crops growing. We did a bit more planting this week, too, seeding our second round of watermelons and muskmelons and re-seeding peanuts where the germination wasn't that great. (Or the voles had a party!) Eric put up a deer fence around our "lower" garden to protect the crops, particularly the sweet potatoes, from those voracious mouths.

We had some sweet friends come for a visit this week. We had not seen them for ten years, which is the last time that they had seen the farm as well. From their point of view, a lot had changed on the farm but a lot of things seemed familiar and unchanged. I'm glad for that. And I'm so thankful they made the trip here!

Thursday, June 5, 2014

2014 Season, week 4

May 31, 2014

This week's harvest:
"Bronze Arrowhead" Lettuce
"Bright Lights" Swiss Chard
"Red Russian" Kale
Garlic Scapes
Purple Kohlrabi
Cilantro
"Hakurei" Salad Turnips

This week's farm news:

We had regular rain on the farm this week... Little showers here and there to keep everything growing, growing, growing! Including the weeds. Oh my, the weeds! Eric spent a whole bunch of time on the tractor this week, cultivating the crops and keeping those weeds in check. We did a little more planting this week, setting out more lettuce and parsley, and seeding peanuts and parsnips.

With the warmer days, our trips to refresh ourselves in the creek became more frequent - a big clue that summer is upon us! The seasonal shift will be quite apparent in your baskets next week as well. You'll see the first of the summer squash, basil, and later spring crops - shelling peas, carrots, beets, and so on. Have a great week!