First a couple of announcements then I answer your questions!
We updated the on-line farmstand to take orders for the 2019 season. Since we did not sell out in 2018 like we planned we are hoping to get a better grasp at the number of shares to offer in 2019. So we are starting the recruiting for 2019 a few weeks early. If you sign-up for 2019 before the end of October you will get next year’s produce at this year’s price. To lock in this year’s price you only need to put down $100 deposit. Send a check or bring in cash to reserve your spot. If you’d like to use a credit card please go through the online store. Unfortunately our system does not allow partial payments via credit card so you’ll have to pay the full cost if you choose to use a credit card.
Garlic Planting Gala is scheduled for Saturday October 6th from 1:00 until done or 4:00, whichever comes first. Afterward we will have a pot luck around the bonfire. This is a great way to meet fellow members, enjoy some fresh air and get a bit of exercise. Please let me know if you can attend. All ages are welcome! We’d love to have all of you!
Farm News
The past week was a pretty quiet week, something unusual considering the bears, armed men and flocks of stinging insects we’ve become accustomed to. So instead of filling you in on what is happening on the farm — boooorrrrring — I’ll answer a question I was asked yesterday while people were picking up their produce in the pick-up tent.
“Hey Farmer Chris, other than you getting wet, why can’t you pick beans when it is raining?” I don’t recall the impetus for this question but it seemed pretty apropos given the previous night’s weather and the rest of the week forecast. Anyway, why don’t we pick beans when it is raining? Because the beans are wet. We also don’t pick beans in the morning. Why? Because they are wet. We also don’t wash the beans. Why? Because they get wet. I think you can see the pattern here. We don’t like the beans to get wet. Why? Because if we put wet beans in the cooler they tend to get moldy fast. And if they are getting moldy while in our cooler they are probably getting moldy in your fridge, even if they were picked that same day. So we never like our beans to be wet when we harvest them.
Outdoor tomatoes have a similar need. We pick outdoor tomatoes when it is dry. In this case it is to prevent diseases from spreading. Wet hands and wet tomatoes spread disease faster. So we pick them in the afternoon as well. However the indoor tomatoes we typically pick first thing in the morning. During the heat of the summer it can get pretty warm inside the hoop house. And since we don’t like wet things keeping the farmers cool prevents us from getting wet from sweat. In the fall we like to go in the hoop house in the morning to stay warm for a bit. So we always pick hoop house tomatoes in the morning.
Ok, one last bit of picking information since this is getting too long. Sweet corn. We like to pick sweet corn in the morning before it gets too warm then put it right into the cooler. If we pick it too late in the day it might not cool down enough before we have to give it out either in the tent or the pick-up totes. If there are time constraints we might pick it the day before we give it out just to get it cooled before giving it out. Lowering the temp slows the conversion of sugar to starch and keeps the corn tasting delicious longer. Our cooler has more cooling capacity than your fridge so we can cool it down faster than you can. Plus putting warm corn in a delivery tote would heat up the other contents of the tote.
That’s enough education for now. Feel free to ask other pertinent questions so I have something to talk about next week.
What will we have this week? Pie pumpkins! Also potatoes, garlic, onions, peppers, summer squash (yes it is still going), some tomatoes, some tomatillos, some eggplants, some beans (we’d have a lot more if it stops raining), some carrots, some cabbage, some kale, lots of okra (thanks to the hot weather this past week), and probably a few other odds and ends.
We have Cheese, Fruit, Eggs, Coffee, Ice Cream and Flower shares this week. Flowers will be ornamental corn!
As always do not hesitate to contact me with questions, comments, suggestions, jokes, etc.