Another week, another gorgeous sunset picture – it was pretty magical the other night up here. Y’all should come up to experience one sometime…I might even put you to work!
We had a couple BIG days this week that hopefully laid the ground work for a great fall and next season. What does a big day on the farm look like this time of year? I’ve been waiting what seems like forever for a good rain to put in the fall transplants. We got that and then some on Wednesday. 2.16″ is what my weather app said, and that might be an understatement judging by how much water was in our harvest buckets the next morning. We planted spinach (the real stuff), chard, lettuce, kale, kohlrabi, bok choi, tatsoi, yokatta na, cabbage, and broccoli. Yea, a lot. My head is still spinning a little trying to keep track of it all. We ran out of room for the cauliflower and perpetual spinach unfortunately, but I’m hoping to squeeze them in somewhere after the next rain (rain dance everyone!). Additionally, we direct seeded spicy salad mix (oh how I’ve missed you!), radishes (you too!), turnips (and you!), arugula (ok all of you), and tokyo bekana.
After planting, we switched over to harvesting for the Saturday CSA – the zucchini and cucumbers that would have been too big by Saturday and the ripest tomatoes and cherry tomatoes. Throw in some maintenance items like trellising the cucumbers, moving the chickens, washing eggs…and yea, it was a busy one. But not over yet as a friend came to the rescue after my crew went home and helped me broadcast seed cover crop while the soil was still (somewhat) wet. And yet still the day wasn’t over. We somehow found the time and energy to make it down to Douglas Orchards to pick blueberries that evening for the Saturday CSA. Sure is a good thing the days are still so long. Although that was enough work for a week, I beat the sun out of bed the next day harvesting the rest of the veggies for the Saturday CSA!
Lots of great veggies on the list, and I’ve loosened up the limits a bit on the good stuff. Somehow we might be harvesting the best lettuce of the season (do I say that every week?), the tomatoes are starting to tomato, and I was pleasantly surprised to see how many carrots and beets we have to go through before the next plantings kick in. There will certainly be a gap, though I don’t think it will be as big as I feared. Although not enough to add to the list, there will also be some eggplant and peppers available first come first serve. Order away!
Veggie Ordering and Pickup Procedures: Put your veggie orders in online before 8pm Sunday. The website is a little buggy so if you don’t see a wide variety of items or you see items out of stock, try refreshing your browser. Also confirm on checkout that you have the correct number of each item in your cart. The two pickup windows are working well, so we’ll keep it going. Choose your pickup window while checking out online: 1230-2pm and 4-5pm Monday on the farm at 64 Potter Hill Rd in Grafton. Pickups are in the long white garage on the left across from the beat up tan and red barn at the crest of the hill.