foxlinecityfarm

A wonderful rain yesterday after a long, hot, dry week. It is difficult for us at times to be out in the heat but the plants love the warm days and nights.  Crops are in full swing and amazing to see how the tomato and cucumber vines will grow a foot or more over night.  The watermelon vines are snaking all over the place and once again we thought we allowed TONS! of space for them to spread out and they are slowing sneaking into the sweet potatoes……

The itty bitty watermelon from last week! Now bigger than my head.

The garlic harvest is complete and the huge beauties are drying in the shed aside for a few of the smaller ones we had to include in the boxes this week for a taste.  Scott has pulled the irrigation, tilled and we are set for planting new this week.  We did our last picking of beans from the first planting and it is nice to have a break from the 3 hour every other day duty.  It was a great harvest! Beans will return again in a few weeks from our second planting.

We are pleased that we have not had any issues with blight so far.  Lots of worry but all is well and strong.  Given the long, cool and wet Spring we thought there would be trouble with pests and other moisture issues like molds and fungus.  Happy to report that these issues are low to totally absent this year.  Scott does a daily inspection walk of the entire garden and we use various organic options to keep everything healthy.

Scott and his grand daughter started our carrot harvest this week and had a lot of fun together.  After a quick wash in the wringer washer we bagged them for the boxes.  Delicious.  We were determined to have wonderful carrots this season after last season’s wimpy crop.  We had a terrible time getting seed to germinate in the extreme heat last year.  Here they are!  3 varieties.  Hours of fussy weeding and thinning and hand watering and totally worth it.

Maeve helped clean the onions for the boxes this week and she is proud of her work.  She told us she is the “grand champion onion peeler” and we had trouble getting her to quit and get ready for bed.  We had a glimpse of our future and her help with the boxes.

Anne “the egg lady” is taking preorders for red raspberries next week.  $2 for a  1/2 pint $4 for a pint.  Let me know by Friday if you would like to order. Erdman group members send an e-mail by Friday and we will bring them down with the delivery.  She also brought chickens again this week.  They are in the cooler and $3 a pound.

Pears ripening on the trees!

A note about the boxes….we are short about 40 boxes right now.  Please look at home and bring them back with next weeks delivery/pick up.  Thanks!

Lots of Eggplant in the Extra Box this week…not quite enough for all the boxes so we included it here.  Please take some if you wish.

WHAT IS IN YOUR BOX

What a Smorgasbord this week!!!!

Scott wasn’t sure we would be able to close the boxes this week.

Lettuce-A huge head called Nevada.  A strong lettuce that can withstand the heat.  Scott’s daily watering assured that we would have this jumbo treat this week.  Very tasty.

Beets-A nice sized bundle for everyone.  Remember the greens are edible and delicious.

Beets ready to be bundled….over 550!

Green Beans-1 pound + again!  The last harvest from the first planting.

New bean plants geminating in the old pea area….

Pac Choi-Perfect for the Summer stir fry.

Zucchini-The patty pans are starting to really flower and all the plants are now in full swing.  Again, we harvest daily and pick them small so they are perfectly sized for meals.

Cucumbers-Long slender European varieties and a big bag of crunchers.

Potatoes-3 pounds.  Early Reds this week. Great roasted and makes the best “home fries” ever.  Can be mashed and baked too but this is a bit of a waxer potato.  We have 5 varieties of potatoes in the ground yet so it will be a fun season of trying different varieties.

Scott washing the potatoes in the rain.

Garlic-We sorted the garlic all out for drying and portioned off the smaller bulbs to include in the boxes this week for fresh eating.

Rosemary-Perfect paring with the potatoes.  Dries well too for future use too.

Dill-We wanted to include this when we had a big bounty of cucumbers for refrigerator pickles.

Onion-These are fresh eating onions not storage.

Micro Greens-Little mild sprouted greens to cut and add to salads or a garnish on hot dishes.  Keep on a bright windowsill on a low plate and water as needed.

Best Guess for next week.

Lettuce, eggplant, peppers, cucumbers, zucchini, savoy cabbage and potatoes.

Recipe “issues” again…..I’ll figure it out soon I hope.  Beet brownies are the best!  Do look on the internet for a recipe.