We’re back to planting, planting, and more planting. More lettuce, sunflowers, assorted flowers, sweet corn, basil, and chard have gone in the ground in the past week. There’s still more to plant. More amazing is that it’s almost time for us to start sowing all the fall crops in the greenhouse. That’s always a bit of a trip to start thinking about fall when we’re just getting the summer crops going, and it’s HOT out. Watch out, by the end of the week it’s going to be close to 100. We’ve starting irrigating everyday now, getting everything as much water as we can in preparation of the intense heat. Most everything seems to be growing well out in the fields. The first round of sweet corn is about ready to tassle, the first stage towards yummy corn on the cob! The tomatoes in the greenhouses are starting to turn and it won’t be long until there will be plenty to go around. But until there’s enough for everyone we’ll be selling the limited amount at market, so get there early if you can’t wait any longer for the first tomatoes of the season.
We spent Monday afternoon at a friend’s farm, DoubleTree Farm, helping her harvest her garlic and multiplier onions. There were ten of us working away. It would have taken her 20 hours to do the job, it took us two hours to get it all up and onto tables for drying: many hands really do make light work. It was a great experience for all our interns to see another farm, a different way of growing produce and dealing with all the challenges of that brings. Cathie also adds horses into the mix, using them just as we do our tractors. It was wonderful to see her drive the horses back and forth to the barn with the garlic. She also has goats which she milks and she loaded us all up with delicious goat cheese before we left. In years past Double Tree Farm was where we have processed our sorghum into molasses. Alas, not this year, we’re going to have to take a break from molasses making this year, hopefully we can return to it next year.
One more little note about the broccoli in your boxes. It’s not the prettiest we’ve ever grown, but it still tastes great. The heat and an early break out of harliquin bugs (usually not seen until fall) have really challenged the plants this spring. There’s still lots of plants out there and with a little luck we’ll have more and better broccoli to give you in the coming weeks.