Last week I asked everyone to leave their car windows open, plan outdoor activities, etc. to try to get us some rain. It worked quite well. Thank you! Now we’re good. So close up the windows and go back to your usual indoor activities.
One quick announcement then on to farm news. We are looking for help starting the middle of August. We currently have college and high school students working here. For some reason they think it is in their best interest to head back to school instead of hanging with us here on the farm. So if you know anyone who would like to farm for a few months send them our way!
Farm News
This week marks what I feel is the transition between the early, spring crops and the seemingly more popular summer crops. This week we add those vegetables that almost everybody loves: veggies like carrots, green beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, and sweet corn (most likely later in the week). We could throw in potatoes as well but we’re planning on digging the first of those next week. When people say they like vegetables these are the ones they likely are talking about. Of course as we transition to new vegetables we need to train our new staff on how to tell when something is ready to harvest, how to harvest it, how to wash it and which items to cull. This is one of the great challenges in this type of farming. We do more training than Great Northern Railroad!
This is also the time we dig up the garlic. I don’t know why I didn’t remember this last week when I asked for help with the dearth of rain but every year we seem to get rain right before it is time to dig garlic. I really didn’t need the help. It was inevitable that it was going to rain. Almost time to dig garlic = rain!
Nonetheless, if you are interested in learning the fine art of garlic digging let me know. Weather permitting we will be digging garlic on Friday. If there is enough interest to schedule a time this weekend I would certainly accommodate a lovely round of garlic digging. Saturdays work better for me but I could do Sunday if necessary. Let me know if you’d like to help! It is a dirty job but someone has to do it.
What will we have this week? Lots of new stuff! We have carrots. We have tomatoes. We have cucumbers. We have beans. We have cabbage, squash, onions, eggplant, kohlrabi, kale, chard, fennel, broccoli, and a few beets.
A quick note on tomatoes: We grow quite a few heirloom tomatoes. They are not necessarily red. They are not necessarily round. They may stay green. They may be knobby. They may not look like tomatoes you are used to. But one thing I can say for sure is they will taste better than tomatoes you are used to. And the key to getting the best flavor is to eat them when they are ripe. We pick our tomatoes at various stages of ripeness. We don’t want to pick them too early before they develop their unique flavors. We don’t want to pick them too late where they are so ripe they need to be eaten right away. We pick them in between these two stages. It gives you a chance to spread out the tasty goodness over a few days to a week (if you can wait that long).
So if they aren’t red when ripe, how do I tell when a tomato is ready to eat? I say let the kids taste it. If they spit it out wait another day or two. Actually it is easier than that. The more the tomato gives to gentle squeezing the riper it is. Don’t wait until the green is gone. Many of the tomatoes will have green shoulders (top of the tomato) even when they are dead ripe. And green zebras always stay green! So use another of your senses and quit relying on visual cues. And finally, please be gentle with the tomatoes in the pick-up tent. Don’t toss them aside looking for the best one. Your fellow farm member who come after you would appreciate it.
SeafoodShare is this week. Also SalmonShare will start this Tuesday if it arrives in time. Otherwise certainly by Wednesday.
FlowerShare is ongoing.