Yikes, all the rain! We’re so glad it has stopped raining for the past few days. We still need the sun to return for at least one more day, so the ground will dry out a little more. We’re hoping to finish making up one of the fields into raised beds, so we can empty the greenhouse again. All the fall brassicas (kales, broccoli, cabbages, and more) are ready to be planted. We were able to plant two beds of sweat corn, a bed of sunflowers, and a bed of mixed flowers on Monday, But there are about a dozen more beds to be planted!
With all that rain comes diseases that are difficult or impossible to control. Those storms can actually bring in diseases from other parts of the country. The worst being, late blight, which has arrived earlier this year than in any year previous:(. Late blight mainly attacks tomatoes, but potatoes as well. The fungus needs warm and wet conditions in order to grow. So if it dries out the disease can’t spread. There is another equally horrible disease, Phytothera. It is a fungus like organism that spreads under the same conditions as late blight, but is found in the soil, whereas late blight is air borne. Phytothera grows into the vascular systems of plants, killing them as the fungus blocks water and nutrients from moving from the roots to the upper parts of the plants. This disease can infect a variety of plants, but has attacked much of our winter squash field:(. Very sad indeed. Some varieties of the winter squash are, for some reason, less susceptible to the disease are still growing well. The Butternut squash still looks great, though much of the acorn squash is gone.
On a more encouraging note, there are quite a few things are are going well. The melons are getting very close to being ripe, the sweet potatoes are growing very well. There will be green beans again very soon. There are lots of vegetables that are growing well and are looking promising for the future. This week’s box is full of great things! We had so many options for this week, it was hard to decide what went into the box and what could wait for next week.
There is a big bag of Basil in the box this week, so it’s time to make some pesto! Remember pesto freezes very well, so put some up for the winter. You can put it into ice trays and then thaw individual cubes based on how many you’re going to be feeding.