Jeez, the Summer is flying by. I can't believe next week is already August. Here's what's in this week's share:
Spinach- Spinach is back! The spinach is kind of impossible to grow right around the Summer solstice, as the long days cause it to bolt, or go to seed. This planting got in just late enough to have produced nice sized plants with no bolting. We don't have a ton, so it might be a smaller bunch size.
Snap peas- Real 100% snap peas! I did the final planting of the Spring with last year's seed, which didn't have the snow pea mix up that the new seed had. So we have some nice fat normal snap peas at last! The snap peas go downhill fast in August, so this will probably be the last time for them!
Broccoli- Mid summer broccoli. The heads form a bit differently and don't get quite as big as the early Summer stuff, but it's still delicious. Most of the U.S. is too hot to grow broccoli this time of year, but with our cooler maritime climate the broccoli is happy as a clam.
http://www.marthastewart.com/1011281/broccoli-recipes
Basil- We have had the best season for basil in years...The last few years the basil was succumbing early to some kind of disease...this season I tried to plan for that by doing numerous smaller plantings, but as it turns out our earliest basil planting is still doing great and going strong.
http://www.myrecipes.com/how-to/7-ways-with/recipes-using-fresh-basil
Summer squash- I took a hoe and chopped down some gigantic summer squash plants yesterday, cutting them down in their prime. It felt wrong, but at the same time we are overwhelmed with squash (as we always are this time of year) and it's pointless to spend tons of time picking plants if we don't need them. I try to avoid having way too much, but as you all probably know from gardening experience, it can be easier said than done.
Potatoes- Wow, our potato crop is really looking great. We are all done with the French fingerlings that were in the shares a few weeks ago, and into our main planting of spuds. I think this week we'll be digging Desiree potatoes, a beautiful pink potato with a yellow interior bred in the Netherlands.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%C3%A9sir%C3%A9e_(potato)
Garlic- With the garlic all hung and drying in the barn, all that remains to do is to cut it down once it's fully dried and store it until it sells or is used for seed.
Large shares only:
Leeks- This will be our first harvest of Summer leeks, and they are really looking good and sizing up quickly. These leeks should stand in the field until they are harvested, and hopefully should last through the late Summer and early Fall. Vichyssoise is a famous cold Summer soup of potatoes and leeks, perfect for this farm share:
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/13205/vichyssoise/
Cucumbers- Not much to left to say on the cucumbers, they keep on pumping out fruit. Might not be long before I'm forced to take a hoe to a few of these plants as well....
More Potatoes, garlic, and broccoli....
Another warm week on the farm after a cooler weekend, and not a drop of rain in well over a month! The vegetables are thriving with the help of Max, who is in charge of irrigation duty this year. It is a big job to keep everything watered sufficiently in June and July when the weather is driest and the fields are at their fullest. We water almost everything off of a domestic well, with limited water flow and pressure, so the weekly irrigation can really be a puzzle as far as figuring out how to get it all done with only so many hours in the day.
That said, it is already starting to get easier. By August, we are tilling in a lot of our early beds that are finished producing, and while we are continuing to plant a few more things for Fall, that still helps. At the same time, many storage crops like potatoes and onions are being cut off of watering to encourage them to dry down and improve storability. Every week the puzzle gets easier.
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