Category Archives: watermelon

In the Share – Week 14

beans, csa, flowers, watermelon

 

MELONS (F/P)  Full shares get the yellow-fleshed variety called Peace.  Please don’t dismay at the color, it is our best melon year after year.  The partial shares will get cantaloupe instead. We hope to switch the options next week as more fruits ripen in the fields.

TOMATOES (F/P) Another fine week in the tomato patch. 

GREEN BEANS (F/P)  The first tender picking of our late planting.  You’ll have the choice of standard type or Roma flat-podded beans. 

HERB CHOICE (F)  Basil or hot peppers.

SUMMER SQUASH OR CUCUMBERS (F)  A first sampling from the last planting of the season.  Welcome back summer squash!

EGGPLANT (F/P) Just one or two this week.

SWEET PEPPERS (F/P)

ONIONS (F/P)  Yellow onions this week.

SALSA PACK OR OKRA (P) 

NEXT WEEK:  More tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, beans and summer squash.  Garlic and carrots return.

FARM REPORT:

It has been an eventful week, as it always is during the peak of the summer harvest.  Friends and family have joined in the work and we have covered a lot of ground.  On Saturday, the CSA members spruced up the low till beds in preparation for the Harvest dinner in September. 

More folks are headed here tomorrow after answering the call for bean-pickers.  Thanks to all who signed-up.  We should have enough pickers to cover the 1400 feet we planted back in July.  The plants are beautiful and covered with fruit and flowers. 

Meanwhile, the laptop with the email program we use is down and so I’ll be brief and leave you with one of the many monstrous sunflowers towering next to the farm house.

In the Share – Week 17

beneficials, dry, fall planting, greenhouse, rain, watermelon
cucurbit family fruit
 

TOMATOES (F/P) A combination of slicers and cherry tomatoes

COLORFUL CARROTS (F/P) This may be the last week of these. Thank you carrots of all colors for nourishing us during a brutal summer!

YELLOW OR RED ONIONS (F/P) The yellow onions are our best keepers and they’ve got a bite to prove it.

WATERMELON, CANTALOUPE OR PUMPKIN (F/P) We realize this is an odd-ball of a choice, but it is what we have. Choose which big ball of fruit you want.

 HOT PEPPERS (F) We continue to have a lot of hot peppers, one of the few fruiting plants that is not affected by high temperatures.

RATTLESNAKE BEANS (F) Precious, precious beans! Finally after months of watching six rows of beans sit and do nothing in the heat, our pole beans are ready to be picked. ‘Snake’ beans can get big but they stay tender and have a nice nutty flavor. Partial shares will get them next week and hopefully the full shares will too.

OKRA, BEETS OR EGGPLANT (P) The last of the beets until fall. Okra and eggplant should be going on for awhile more.

GREENS CHOICE (F) There is some kale and collard plants that need to be picked. They won’t be big bunches but it is nice to have something green for a change.

HERB CHOICE (F/P) We are sending in more dried herbs along with sage and thyme.

NEXT WEEK: More tomatoes, peppers, okra, eggplant, and beans. Arugula and radishes, we hope. Garlic returns.

FARM REPORT:

The big news on the farm is the glorious high tunnel taking shape over in its corner of the farm. See Tom’s post for more on the work day on Sunday, but I must say we are stupendously fortunate to have such capable, friendly folks in our corner. We slopped around in the mud together and cogitated over the plans together and in the end we managed to get a lot done and have a good time doing it. Today we began seeding the plants that will call the high tunnel home in about a month’s time.

Lettuces, bok choy, bunching onions, beets, and bulb fennel are seeded so far. Also on the list to enter the tunnel: radishes, carrots, young turnips, spinach, arugula, swiss chard, rapini and endive. Since we have never done this before we are very hesitant to predict how the season will turn out, but we hope to offer an extension of the CSA season by three weeks to a maximum of 50 current CSA members. The twenty-fourth and final week of the regular CSA season will be the week ending October 20th. Once we get to October, we will ask you to let us know if you would like to extend your share.

beneficial insect:  predatory lacewing

In the meantime, we are looking forward to the beginning of a new harvest season. The small bunches of kale and collards are ushering us into what looks to be a bountiful fall. The 0.75 inch rain on Sunday gave the thousands of baby seedlings a nice drink, but six inches down the soil is still dry. The irrigation pump stays on to supplement what nature provides. We are keeping an eye on Hurricane Isaac but it is unclear if any rain will get here. So far we are a foot of rain below average for the year. We hope that everyone stays safe down in the Gulf Coast and that they send some of their extra moisture on up to us.

In the Share – Week 13

dry, watermelon

TOMATOES (F/P) A combination of heirloom, hybrid and paste tomatoes. The crop is slowing now but we should have some for a few more weeks.

CHERRY TOMATOES (F/P) We should have pints for everyone this week.

YELLOW WATERMELON (F) What a crazy crop to be harvesting in the middle of a drought. There are literally hundreds of pounds of water leaving the farm this week in the form of a tasty little yellow watermelon.

CANTALOUPE (P) Ditto on the cantaloupe. Not a huge melon fan? Make a simple lemon juice and honey dressing to add a little zing.

EGGPLANT (F) There are more recipes for eggplant than any other vegetable so if you haven’t found one you like, keep looking.

SWEET PEPPERS (F) OKRA, SALSA PACK OR HOT PEPPERS (F) The okra is growing well as it is one of the few vegetables that we raise that prefer the heat.

COLORFUL CARROTS (F/P) While the orange ones are still our favorites, we like the purples and yellows for their robust flavors and cool colors.

RED ONIONS (F/P) A mix of red varieties including the torpedo-shaped, Rossa Lunga di Tropea.

HERB CHOICE (F) Basil, parsley, thyme or a dried herb.

NEXT WEEK: More tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, okra, salsa packs and melons. Potaotoes and garlic. 

FARM REPORT:

It is becoming difficult to come up with new ways to describe the weather. Blow torch or blast furnace? I think I’ve used them both. Either would be accurate although the last two days have been more like a steam pit. Only a few drops of rain fell but the humidity is in full force.  The clouds made for a spectacular sunrise this morning in the melon patch.

 Miraculously we are pulling sweet and perfect watermelon and cantaloupe out of the field right now. Melons are only 50% successful for us, but when they come in as beautiful and flavorful as this it makes all the effort worth it. We hope you enjoy them for the short time they are here.