In farming the elements are rarely as you want them. There’s either too much or too little of rain, sun, wind, etc. We’ve gone from no rain in weeks and weeks to some nice thunderstorms over the past couple. Now we need it to stop raining, so we can get back to work in the fields. The rains forced us back into the greenhouses and the barn to take care of many projects just waiting for a rainy day. Now that the greenhouses are all squared away, cleaned up, full of trays of little starts, or planted with new rounds of tomatoes and cucumbers, we want to get back out with the tractors to plant, cultivate, and make up new beds.
As we approach the middle of the CSA season, we like to think of the season as climbing a rather large hill, a small mountain really. We’re about to reach the peak! As hard to believe as it is, we’ve sown the last beet and carrot beds. The bulk of the Fall sowings are all in the greenhouse starting to germinate or already getting close to being transplanted. Once the Fall greens (kales, collards, broccoli, cabbages, etc.) get planted in early August, the farming gets much easier. Once the greenhouse clear out this time, it wouldn’t fill back up until February. We’re looking forward to the down hill portion of the season.
If anyone has any feed back about the season thus far, we would welcome it. Please be gentle.
Nick’s Corner
We are now approaching half way through the season and I feel like I’ve been at the farm for only about a month. Where has all of the time gone? Almost every week I find myself asking Megan or Maggie: “What did we do last week?” All of the weeks seem to run together. I think that most of it is attributed to our almost daily harvesting. When I think about it, the only day we don’t harvest anything at all is on Thursdays. Every other day we’re bringing something in out of the field. No matter what, Friday rolls around and I think to myself, “was yesterday not Monday?” The season is so busy it seems as if a day is gone in the time you could say “you made squashamole for lunch!”
I have been meaning to honor a particular plant that we all know and love here at Full Sun, so here goes.
Dear Lemon Basil…
Lemon Basil oh how you smell so yummy.
You grow amongst others of your kin.
Life without you would be a mortal sin.
Why must you go in bouquets instead of my tummy?
Especially when you make our days amazing and sunny.
What will it take for our love to win?
You have our thoughts and noses again and again.
The smell of you makes my stomach growl
I’ll put you in a bowl, amidst my favorite soup.
Your taste will grace my tounge, smooth as silk
In the ground you were placed, a trowel, a trowel
But instead you remind of something I’ve eaten with mIlk
With colored O’s…a bird… Fruit Loops!
I am no Shakespeare but man do we love some lemon basil. If you haven’t experienced the power of the Lemon Basil, it’s amazing…end of story. Hope you enjoyed my little Sonnet but don’t expect any books of poetry from me anytime soon.