Is it truly the penultimate week of August? I have to keep double-checking my calendar to make sure, where has the summer gone?!
Things can change and evolve pretty quickly on the farm and this month is no exception. Our tomatoes have slowed a bit while our cherry tomatoes have exploded! Not literally, we just have, at last count, about 400 pints of these little gems harvested and ready.
Our office is full of spaghetti squash, packed into black crates and stacked 5-6 high, creating a labyrinth of vegetables. Tomatoes, eggplant, and melons join the squash in making the space harder to navigate, but so much more beautiful!
Now is the time of year when we're harvesting lots of heavy, bulky stuff. Stuff that can sit for a while after coming out of the fields, unlike a head of lettuce or bunch of kale that needs refrigeration and quick turnover period to preserve freshness.
We emptied the final field of potatoes this week, culminating several weeks of hard work. This year's harvest came out to 234 crates, and at a weight of 30-35 lbs each, we have well over 7,000 pounds of potatoes!! Currently one entire cooler is packed to the gills with potatoes and we're calculating how to make sure they all go to a good home.
Watermelon and cantaloupe are yet another heavy crop that we're harvesting. It's a fun change of pace to work with something sweet since these are the only fruits we grow (this is using the more colloquial version of fruit, yes tomatoes and peppers are technically fruit too!)
And while it feels like the season is slipping through our fingers, new veggies are ripening and ready almost every day. Cucumbers are waning, but we have sunset-orange habanero peppers and multicolored picnic peppers to take their place. Zucchini and squash are on the way out, but the edamame will be harvested soon and I truly can't wait!
We also finished almost all of our fall planting this week and that field is looking promising and fresh. All those greens and brassicas like broccoli and cauliflower and brussels sprouts will be back soon! In addition to the plant starts we mostly use, we seeded some other storage vegetables. Items like watermelon radishes, turnips, rutabagas, and carrots will provide some variety and crunch throughout the cold months for our winter share members.
It's been a treat growing food for our community this year so far and we still have another whole season to enjoy! Our last week of Summer CSA is coming up here at the end of August, and then we'll take a one-week break before coming back in September for the Fall CSA!
If you're already signed up, thank you! We can't wait to bring you delicious, local veggies and share the harvest. For those of you on the fence, we'd love to have you join our community for the fall! It's a great time to eat local; we'll still have delicious late summer veggies like peppers, okra, and tomatoes and soon all of the fall treats like sweet potatoes, greens, and winter squash.
Thanks for reading and happy eating!
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