Author: Michael Chase

Week of July 9th CSA Update

It has been a brutally HOT and HUMID week! This weather is hard on plants, animals and people. Picking, storing and keeping the produce looking fresh takes much effort on these days.
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The cauliflower we planted, covered with agribon and weeded several times did not produce before the heat and is in such bad shape, we won’t be able to put it shares. The heads are yellowing and splitting even at a very small size. Much of our lettuce has bolted, but we still have some varieties holding in the field. We plant diversity to mediate risk, but when we a lose crop, we lose the resources we put into the crop as well as the ability to put it in the shares.
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Other crops flourish in the heat, for example zucchini is now in high production and will make its first appearance in your basket this week. Cobbler new potatoes will also be in shares this week. The tomato crop looks good so far and the sweet corn is tasseling and silking up,  we will keep you posted on their progress as the season moves along. We harvested garlic and shallots last week and they are curing in the barn. String beans and cucumbers are flowering and starting to produce and should be showing up in shares soon.
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Think cool thoughts!

CSA Update for July 2nd and 6th

First it was the rain and now it is really HOT and muggy. These are the days we question our sanity about being farmers!

The warm weather and wet fields are good for many crops, but also favor the weeds. Much effort is getting put into trying to keep the weeds down on the farm this year. One reason we planted the mustard (which got harrowed over the weekend) was to smother weeds. It seems to be successful and was quite pretty. We are sad to see it gone, but will plant it again on another part of the farm soon. The vetch near the exit of the farm was mowed down, so we can get the field ready for our fall crops. The vetch keeps down weeds too and adds nitrogen to the soil.

Snap peas are done for the season, but shelling peas will make an appearance in your basket this week. New potatoes will be in your basket this week too. They are uncured, so the skin is quite easy to peel off. One of the advantages of buying local is getting to try crops in ways that you won’t often get at the supermarket. We hope you enjoy them.

CSA Update June 29

More rain, maybe we should have grown water lilies this year! It has also been very hot this month. High heat slows down and stresses the cool weather crops like lettuce, spinach, bok choy and peas. Snap peas stopped flowering this week, the spinach has bolted and garlic scapes are gone for the season.

Other crops enjoy the warmer days of summer. Broccoli has headed up, zucchini is flowering and many of our potatoes are flowering too. Carrots and beets are sizing up and likely to show up in shares within a few weeks.

Tree swallows have been visiting the farm. It has been wonderful to watch these birds forage for insects over the fields over the past week. The mustard flowers continue to attract honey bees, when it is quiet you can hear them buzzing!

-Mike, Hermik, Narineh, Abby, Hadley

Happy Summer!

Preparing for CSA, June 18
Preparing the shares for June 18th CSA pickup

Hey all! Welcome to Summertime.

June 15th marked the opening of our farm stand, which went swimmingly. We’re planning on opening up our friday farmstand hours July 12th, but we’re still a little unsure, so stay tuned! CSA is going great– we’ve got a couple of pictures the shares on our flickr, if you want to check them out.

So far we’ve worked through our spinach and radish crops, so sadly those are done for the season. Bok Choi and kohlrabi are still hanging in there, but only for another week or so– same goes for sweet peas. We just pulled up cilantro, and arugula today, but we have more of the arugula coming up soon! We’ve got lettuce, loose leaf and head, for a few more weeks, and Kale and Swiss Chard are going nuts. Scapes are gone, but fresh garlic is here, and the scallions are bangin’. We’ve spotted some really fat heads of broccoli, so we’re hoping to have some of those guys in the stand this saturday– not to mention a little birdy made mention of some early potatoes…

So we hope to see you all this Saturday at the stand, and be sure to stay cool!