Hello
Everyone,
It was a rainy week. We
received almost three inches of precipitation; creating muddy conditions and
making it a challenge to get the harvesting done and continue with the
planting. We were almost caught up with the spring planting schedule and are
now a bit behind again. It is mostly with direct seeding of crops, specifically
the beans, that I feel the most urgency. We had a warm sunny weekend with
breezy conditions so the ground is drying out nicely. I will be putting in some
marathon sessions on my seeding tractor during this window of opportunity
before the next round of rain. It is time now to plant the pumpkins and winter
squash, but the beds are all prepared and I should be able to make a good start
on these crops this week. We received 9,000 sweet potato plants on Friday and
they have all been set out.
The peas have begun to mature but
not in huge quantities, so there will be a small amount of peas (most likely English
aka shell peas). By next week I expect an abundance of peas which should
continue for several weeks. The bok choy is ready for your stir-fry enjoyment. Much of the spinach crop began to bolt to seed
so we had to cut it at a small size and will not have as much as I
expected. We do have beautiful Swiss
chard right now, so we will offer a choice of 2 bu. of spinach or one bunch of
chard. We will be offering a choice of arugula or tatsoi and possibly some
broccoli raab. There should be a lot more raab by next week. We have cut the
garlic scapes (flower tops of the garlic plant) and will be sending some in the
shares. For the newbies, these can be chopped finely, sautéed and added to
dishes for a garlic flavor, grilled whole or blended into a pesto. Also of note
is chervil, a French fin herb that likes cool weather and is a bit tricky to
grow and hence hard to find in markets or stores. We will include some as a
choice with the herbs this week, so the Francophiles among you will want to
watch out for that. As always in the spring we are heavy on greens, thus we
will be sending 2 lettuces in this week’s share and a choice of endive
(frissee) or escarole.
The share
for this week will be: Lettuce (2), bok choi, choice of spinach or chard, peas,
choice of escarole or frissee, garlic scapes, choice of a mustard
green(arugula, tatsoi or broccoli raab) and choice of an herb (dill, cilantro
or chervil).
Enjoy!
Farmer John