The past week has been just kind of a “normal” week, that’s old normal, not the new normal(rainy). We’ve just been thinning beets & carrots, doing a lot of weeding, scouting for insect pests, sowing a few more things in the greenhouse, figuring out the quantities of cover crop seed we need to purchase, and irrigating. Yes irrigating, as unbelievable as that is, the plants needed water and the heavens weren’t supplying it. There are a few more projects around the farm that we’re trying to get to before the end of the week: taking down the tomato & bean trellises & mowing down those messes, harvesting the popcorn & getting it all shucked and hanging in the greenhouse to dry, and harvesting some sweet potatoes. Sweet potatoes need to be cured at fairy high temperatures and humidity for a couple of weeks before we sell them, so we’d like to get some out of the ground soon. Next week will be busy with strawberry plants and the planting of 2,000 of those as well as planting the over-wintering flowers.
There are still a few beds of winter-hardy kales to be planted either this week or next, then the garlic and onions in mid-October will be the last things to go in. Below is a picture of all the little onions in the greenhouse that working members Shelagh & Rachel sowed; 52 trays of onions in just a couple of hours. Good work ladies and the little plants are looking good.
Interns and worker members with the last of the potatoes!
Ideas for Cooking
Last weeks’ cooking advice can work with this week’s winter squash as well. The butternut squashes can last a few months just sitting on you kitchen counter. They will get sweeter over time as well, but as the starches in the squash change to sugars the chances of some king of rot settling in increase, so don’t wait too long to enjoy them. We ate one for Tuesday lunch and it was already quite tasty.
Green kale makes it back into your box this week. Remember that toasted sesame seeds are fantastic on raw kale salad or stemmed kale with a little vinegar and soy sauce mixed in.