foxlinecityfarm

Life has been pretty good around here with the rain.  It sure does change everything.  The crisis seems to be over for us.  We have more time now that we do not have to water or think about what needs water 24 hours a day…..also it feels really nice not to have that constant worry floating around in our heads….

Many of the Fall Crops went in this week and many more to get in yet.  It is almost as if we are planting a whole new second garden!  I peeked at the watermelon patch this week in detail and there are many of the beauties out there.  I even kinda jumped the gun and picked a tiny little one that seemed ready.  Well, it hardly had any pink tone to it at all.  Maeve nibbled on it for a bit and said “not bad”.

Lettuce is looking really good.  we have one more planting of about 300 ready to be transplanted out of all the heat tolerant varieties and in about 2-3 weeks I will start seeding in colder varieties.  We even have 3 varieties that are suppose to be extremely cold tolerant that I am excited to try this year for the first time for the storage box shares.  We opted to omit lettuce from this weeks box to let it size up just a bit more.  The cooler nights have been helpful and we are not loosing so many heads to bolting.

The Tomatoes look wonderful.  I forgot how much I enjoy picking tomatoes at the beginning of the season.  I LOVE! the smell of the vines.  The plants are loaded and the slicers are just starting to color.  If anyone needs or wants canning boxes please let us know.  I think I may have mentioned that soon we will be harvesting over 100 pounds a day and this gets a bit overwhelming at times.

A photo from last year’s harvest. What a bounty.

We also have an interesting visitor or two every year of this amazingly pretty and damaging caterpillar.  They sure can chomp away.  Leaves and tomatoes both.  We spot the evidence that they have moved in and find them quickly.  I am sure it would be pretty devastating to the crop in short order if they were not removed.

Our focus this week is the weeds….they to have flourished with all the rain.  Several years ago we had this really great idea to get a primo huge load of horse manure for the garden in the Autumn.  Well, we are still paying the price for this really good idea.  This load was loaded with weed seed that we have never seen before as well as foxtail grass.  It is difficult to get on the other side of this great decision.  Never again will we do this.  Also, there is an interesting “gourmet” weed called purslane that really likes it here.  It is an edible succulent herb very high in vitamin C and rich in Omega Fatty Acids.  A spicy taste and really great on salads and sandwiches.  If anyone would like to try it let me know as we have TONS!….I just can’t bring myself to include it in the boxes even though I have seen other CSA’s include it in their offering. It is extremely  fast growing and is considered an invasive species.