Category Archives: basil

In the Share: Week 7

basil, rain, shade structure, tomato plants

BASIL F/P  The heat has made for some nice basil bunches to celebrate the arrival of summer.

WALLA WALLA ONIONS F/P  The first week of many with these sweet onions.

NEW POTATOES F/P  The potatoes are surviving the heat only so well.  It is time to save the many nice ones before they cook in the ground!  New potatoes should be stored like other fresh roots in the refrigerator as their skins have not developed fully.

CARROTS F/P  The first of these are still young and very tender with tops.

BEETS OR TURNIPS F  Your choice of roots with no tops.

GAILAN OR CHARD F  Here’s just tops.  Which reminds me of the children’s story “Tops and Bottoms” where the crafty Hare tricks the lazy Bear due to his lack of knowledge about vegetable anatomy.

NAPA CABBAGE F/P  Check Tom’s blog for some hints on making kimchi

NEXT WEEK:  garlic, squash, cabbage, lettuce, carrots, and perhaps tomatoes.

FARM REPORT:
The soil was dry and cracked.  We were irrigating the fields, yet the plants were withering under the scorching heat and it wasn’t even Summer yet.  Then, on the first day of Summer a beautiful thing happened: a thunderstorm came out of the north and soaked the fields.

By the next morning we had three inches of water in the rain gauge and the cracks were gone.  The rain couldn’t have come at a better time.  We were already working on mulching the summer crops and now we can hold on to the moisture under a thick layer of hay.  The tomato patch is coming along and holds many green fruits.
Mulching is just so much fun when the temperatures reach 98 degrees and the humidity is similarly high.  Every dusty piece of dried plant matter sticks to your sweaty skin which the sweat bees are busily biting.  It is one of those dirty jobs on the farm that have an enormous benefit once you get through it.  And we are almost done, maybe one or two more sweaty afternoons.
When we have had our fill of mulching, we cool down in the shade and seed crops for the fall.  The shade structure is full of cabbages, broccoli and cauliflower so far.  The shade keeps the flats cool to provide a better temperature for the seeds to germinate.  Even seeds don’t want to be out in this heat.

In the Share – Week 12

basil, broccoli, onion trimming, shade structure
 
Basil

TOMATOES F/P  It is tasting like summer now!

CHERRY TOMATOES F/P  The perfect summertime snack.

CARROTS F/P  The last of the Spring harvest, sadly.  Enjoy them now, we won’t have more until Fall.

BASIL, MINT OR HOT PEPPERS F/P  We grow jalapenos,  Anaheim and banana hot peppers which will be a choice with the mint and the lemon and Genovese basil this week.

SQUASH OR CUCUMBERS F  Still not much of either.  The second planting is succumbing to bacterial wilt spread by the cucumber beetles.

SALSA PACK OR SWEET PEPPERS P  The tomatillos have started to really kick in so expect more salsa packs in your future.

ONIONS F  An assortment of some of our sweet varieties.  The onion harvest is in full swing now. 

SWEET PEPPERS F  The peppers survived the wet weather in good shape and making some nice early peppers. 

EGGPLANT F  Ditto on the eggplant.  Our black Italian variety is putting out lovely fruit right now.

NEXT WEEK:  tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, eggplant, peppers and potatoes and garlic.

FARM REPORT:
Finally it is starting to feel like a normal summer on the farm.  The heat is high, the tomatoes are ripening and we are in the middle of the fall transplanting.  

 
With nothing but sun and heat in the forecast the broccolis got irrigation tape laid next to each row as soon as they went in the ground on Friday.  For the first time this year, the irrigation pond is put to work.
 
Back at the greenhouse shade structure, there are many more plants awaiting the same treatment.
 


In the Share – Week 10

basil, cucumbers

CUCUMBERS F/P These plants continue to pump out the fruits.  Usually the first of our plantings has petered out by now, instead we have double the crop. 

CARROTS F/P  Orange only this time.  For the remainder of the summer they will be topped and bagged. 

SWEET ONIONS F/P  The upper barn is an allium wonderland of drying garlic and these beautiful and big Walla Wallas. 

TOMATOES F/P  So far the crop looks good, although the plants are battling the damp.  Tomatoes don’t thrive in cool, wet summers but we planted a lot of plants so we should have a steady harvest for awhile.

SALSA PACK F  Comprised mainly of tomatillos, with a jalapeno, a bit of garlic and a small onion.  Add a tomato from your share if you wish, either way you’ve got salsa or chile verde at the ready.

SUMMER SQUASH F/P  yellow squash and zucchini in several stripes, shapes and colors.

SWEET PEPPERS F  The last of the green peppers for awhile.  The rest we will leave to ripen. 

EGGPLANT OR BEETS F/P  It would be a tough choice for me, but for some we realize these two can be unfamiliar.  Check out Tom’s blog for simple ways to use eggplant.

HERB CHOICE F  Summer savory, garlic chives, or dried herbs.

HOT PEPPERS F  A few of your choice:  Jalapeno, Anaheim, Hot Wax or Pepperoncini.

NEXT WEEK:  More tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, salsa packs, and eggplant.  Potatoes and garlic.

FARM REPORT:
The summer harvest is in full swing now and we have time for little else.  We are made very happy by the sweet onions, garlic, carrots and potatoes that we have been bringing into the barn for storage.  Twice a week we spend the day picking bucket upon bucket of cucumbers, along with crates of squash, tomatoes, eggplant and peppers. 

While most of our fields are thriving, we had to mow down the basil plants this week.  The wet weather we have been having are the perfect environment for downy mildew.  We chopped off the top growth and sprayed with a pro-biotic treatment.  We hope that the basil will put out new leaves without mildew.  Until then, we will be relying on our other summer herb plants:  summer savory, parsley and the dried herbs we have in storage.

mildew-infected basil before chopping it down