High Summer, No Greens
So, we're right at the midpoint of the farm season, and I haven't done much blogging, in part because Carin is doing such a good job keeping everyone up to date and in the know re veggies, but thought I'd give some thoughts from the field.
As any of our long time members know, every year is different, and this one seems to be no exception: we will be giving out melons the earliest ever, and they taste great, and furthermore, for the first time we will be doing two weeks of melons. Tomatoes also doing well, and we are likely to move up to two pounds a person for next week, but what is lacking this time of year is greens. It seems odd to me, Chard and Kale are such standbys at Open Heart, but this year one third of our kale patch got wiped out by sweet midge, a little devilish fly that likes to kill the growing center of brasicas (cabbage, cale, broc, etc) - which is why I planted a super-ton of collards along with our normal fall planting of cauliflower and broc, and it looks good, and I suspect it will be ready for eating in a few weeks.
Most other things in the field are coming along smashingly. The only issue with the pumpkins is how to get them into your hands: they are giant. You might have noticed all cucurbits are doing fairly well this summer, the cukes and squash are constant. It also looks like the eggplant is setting up for a fall run, lots of flowers I think helped by these cool nights we are starting to get.
I have been trying to seed lots of greens too, like arugala and a second round of spinach, so eventually some of those will start to be coming our way.
Also been thinking about this shady section of our newer field. It has never produced that well, most veg just doesn't like shade, even if it doesn't like super hot either (like you think lettuce or peas or spinach might do well with shade, but I think what they really like is spring and fall), so, pictured right is the answer to all our shade issues, jerusalem artichokes. Besides being a perennial cutting flower for members they will yield a little tuber that doesn't really taste at all like an artichoke to me, but is a yummy compliment to all those other ones you get in the winter, at least something different.
As any of our long time members know, every year is different, and this one seems to be no exception: we will be giving out melons the earliest ever, and they taste great, and furthermore, for the first time we will be doing two weeks of melons. Tomatoes also doing well, and we are likely to move up to two pounds a person for next week, but what is lacking this time of year is greens. It seems odd to me, Chard and Kale are such standbys at Open Heart, but this year one third of our kale patch got wiped out by sweet midge, a little devilish fly that likes to kill the growing center of brasicas (cabbage, cale, broc, etc) - which is why I planted a super-ton of collards along with our normal fall planting of cauliflower and broc, and it looks good, and I suspect it will be ready for eating in a few weeks.
Most other things in the field are coming along smashingly. The only issue with the pumpkins is how to get them into your hands: they are giant. You might have noticed all cucurbits are doing fairly well this summer, the cukes and squash are constant. It also looks like the eggplant is setting up for a fall run, lots of flowers I think helped by these cool nights we are starting to get.
I have been trying to seed lots of greens too, like arugala and a second round of spinach, so eventually some of those will start to be coming our way.
posted by Josh May at 9:59 PM
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