foxlinecityfarm

It is comforting to us to report happy news.  Our garden is the best it has ever been!  The vegetables are thriving, the proper crop rotations are getting in the ground at the proper time,  weeds are at a minimum and we are managing to stay in front of them, our work load does not seem overwhelming, we sleep well and have time for play with Maeve.  We have hit our stride and it feels good.  So, we weed, water, harvest and plant something every day and then repeat it the next day.  A simple, focused life here.

A long chilly week of day and night temperatures have slowed down a few crops-TOMATOES!  They are coming and I am sure with the warmth projected this week we will see more color.  Beans are chugging along but we have yet to pick the big mother load.

Remember these itty bitty beauties last week? We should start picking tomorrow.

The melons are slow to develop too but they are there,  just behind from last year’s growth……

This cold July has been wonderful for our leafy green crops and this weeks lettuce harvest is amazing!

Hoop House “Leafy Greens”.

This weeks lettuce harvest ready to cut.

HUGE! delicious lettuce heads!

Tropicana is this variety and it is the perfect summer lettuce.

We seeded in another long section of storage carrots and this week’s temperature is perfect for germination.

Carrot section under row cover.

The big popcorn experiment is doing well……we are shooting for knee high by the end of July.

The long popcorn row.
To the left is the new zucchini section. Where the garlic once grew.

Scott finished the garlic harvest!  It is counted out, our seed garlic for next year portioned off and all hanging to cure.  1300 bulbs are drying in the shed.  A successful and bountiful harvest.

Onions and shallots are just about ready.  We snuck an onion off of for everyone this week for a taste.  We sampled a shallot last night at supper and it was sweet and delicious.  We are excited to offer shallots for this first time in our CSA shares.

Pears are not as prolific as the HUGE! harvest last year but they are ripening up.  We are hopeful the volume is there for weekly shares.

Pears in our little mini orchard.

The greenhouse is full again of little basil plants.  I like to restart a huge batch so we all have fresh juicy succulent leaves when the tomatoes really hit.

Major Basil!

WHAT IS IN YOUR SHARE

Another wonderful week of harvest.  Enjoy!  414 pounds of food this week!

SNACK PACK

Lettuce-HUGE! heads of a tasty variety called Tropicana.

Garlic-Another fresh bulb of this favorite crop.  We will take a few weeks break from offering it again while it cures in the shed.

Mint-Refreshing.  Add to salads, fruit or a nice addition to cucumber water.

Summer Squash-An assortment of these little beauties.

Green Beans-Traditional American long round green beans OR the elongated flatten European variety.

Slicing Tomato-Here they come.  Enjoy.  We grow many different varieties-primarily Heirloom so you will experience a huge range in color, taste and size throughout the season.

Eggplant-An assortment of midsize varieties.

Cucumber Mix-Hope you are LOVING!! those little mini thin skinned wonders.  We are!  Also, a few American true pickling cucumbers in the mix too.  These have the spines and a more bitter/tougher skin.

Sorting out the cucumber harvest for this weeks share.

Dividing up the delicious mini snacking cucumbers.

Long Skinny Slicing Cucumber-1 in each share.

Onion-A taste of the delicious summer onion crop to come.

Maeve cleaning onions.

FULL SHARE

Lettuce-HUGE! heads of a tasty variety called Tropicana.

Garlic-A few bulbs of this favorite crop.  We will take a few weeks break from offering it again while it cures in the shed.

Mint-Refreshing.  Add to salads, fruit or an addition to cucumber water.

Summer Squash-An assortment of these little beauties.

Green Beans-Traditional American long round green beans OR the elongated flatten European variety.

Slicing Tomato-Here they come.  Enjoy.  We grow many different varieties-primarily Heirloom so you will experience a huge range in color, taste and size throughout the season.

Cherry Tomatoes-1/2 Pint mixed container of these tasty little gems.

Maeve helped pick the Cherry Tomatoes this week.

Showing off a beauty!

Cucumber Mix-Hope you are LOVING!! those little mini thin skinned wonders.  We are!  Also, a few American true pickling cucumbers in the mix too.  These have the spines and a more bitter/tougher skin.

Long Skinny Slicing Cucumber-2+ in each share.

Cabbage-A delicious mid season slightly flattened head.

Onion-A taste of the delicious summer onion crop to come.

Bouquet OR Berries-the Full share is split this week.  You will receive a garden flower bouquet or a 1/2 pint of Raspberries.  Next week we will switch.

Fantastic raspberry year for us. The first year the patch is big enough to include them in the share.

BEST GUESS FOR NEXT WEEK-potatoes, tomatoes, salsa mix (cilantro, peppers, onions, mini garlic, tomatoes), summer squash, cucumbers, celery, lettuce, beets?, and more…….

This week we will visit the bees and harvest Spring Honey. I cannot wait to see and taste the harvest.

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Another wonderful week in the garden….It sure is nice to work in cooler temperatures-but sure slows down the tomatoes, beans, peppers and melons.

Loaded mini sweet pepper plants! Scott trellised them to make sure they would not crack from the weight.

Melons!

Mini single serving cantaloupe.

We seeded in an early heat tolerant spinach and it germinated beautifully in this weather.  The loooooong row of cauliflower and more late season broccoli went in last week.  They love the cool temperatures to settle into their new growing homes. Low transplanting stress.  So, a trade off I guess and we just wait a bit longer for some of the heat loving crops.

All the way down to the telephone pole. Late season cauliflower and broccoli harvest.

The hoop house is in full glorious swing.  Scott and I realized that it has completely transitioned through 6 crops already this year.  Hard to believe.  This space sure has been a powerhouse for us.

Watering in the hoop house crops.

The garlic harvest has begun and we are pleased with the yield.  Fresh garlic is in the share this week with more to come throughout the season.  When the crop is fully harvested  we will condition the soil and a new summer squash patch is ready to take it’s place.  We like to have a second rotation of summer squash to ensure zucchini all summer long. 45 plants are waiting in the greenhouse now ready to go in.

Lots of weeding again this week.  A second pass through the shallots and onions which are heading up nicely.

Summer sweet onions.

Red long Tropea onions.

We are still hand digging all the early potatoes and should finish the big job this week and will work on transplanting out more Fall/Early Winter crops in the freed up space.  Scott checked on the bees and they have been busy.  We will start spinning Spring honey in the next few weeks and appear in future shares.

Pretty Summer cabbage.

We started picking beans every other day and they are waiting for a big blast of heat.  The plants are loaded with beautiful little beans but they are taking their time to “bulk up”.  Several rotations are in the garden now for a steady supply this season.

Scott picking beans.

Jennifer picking beans.

Pretty purple bean flowers.

WHAT IS IN YOUR SHARE

304 pounds of produce today!!!

Scott packing the shares this morning and dividing up the summer squash.

SNACK PACK

Kale-a Delicious assorted bundle.  Eat raw in salads, wonderful braised or make “chips” in the oven.

Garlic-Fresh garlic and the first of the season!

Summer Squash-A few assorted beauties in every bag.

Cucumber-A mix snack assortment and 1 long skinny Asian slicer.

Cherry Tomatoes-Just JUST! enough for a 1/2 pint of these assorted wonders for snack pack only this week.  Keep on the counter and out of the refrigerator and they will ripen up throughout the week.  13 different varieties this year assorted shapes, color, size and flavor.

Cauliflower-This early cauliflower crop did not head up as we had hoped. Always tricky.  Tasty but tiny heads.  We have 4 more tries in the garden now to get those jumbo beauties.

Pac Choi-The last rotation of my favorite until late Fall.

FULL SHARE

Basil Bundle-A mixed bunch of sweet basil.  Oriental Breeze which is sweet and spicy and Cinnamon (with the pretty purple blooms) which carries the flavor of……cinnamon.

Mini Lettuce-A few compact red mini romaine.

Garlic-A couple of heads of this just dug fresh treat!

Summer Squash-Several assorted varieties in every share.

Fingerling Potatoes-A delicious variety called Tom Thumb.

Cucumbers-A big assorted snack pack and 2 long Skinny Asian Slicers.

Eggplant-Several varieties planted this year and an assortment will appear in your share.

Peppers!!!-1 Bell pepper, 1-2 Poblano peppers and 1-2 Jalapeno. The Jalapeno is a new variety we are testing.  NO/LOW HEAT and all the flavor.

Slicer Tomato/s-We had enough slicer tomatoes ripen this week for 1-2 in each share.  MORE! to come soon.

Beans-1/2 pound bag.  2 varieties separated. A popular giant Italian style with rich flavor and an early green bush bean.

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Weed, water, plant and harvest-that is our daily theme around here.  A busy time with the sometimes twice daily visit to the cucumber and zucchini patches but we are on top of things and always exciting to see the healthy and abundant vegetables coming out of the garden.  The pea vines came down, the ground prepped and the big late popcorn “experiment” took their place.  Fingers crossed that there is enough time to reach maturity.  We had good germination in the greenhouse and all 1000 of those little cups were transplanted Saturday morning.  We started the potato harvest and we are thrilled with the yield! Well over 300 pounds.   Our early red norland crop is all out of the ground and in the share this week.

Scott hand forks the plants out of the ground and I harvest from the soil.

Beautiful and abundant potatoes.

Maeve helped wash the potatoes…

There was a lot of this………

distraction……

and this……

distraction………again…….

But we eventually got the washing job done.

Maeve feeling pretty cool about all the potatoes.

Weeding is a top priority and we spent a good part of 2 days cleaning up the zucchini patch with a bit of additional help from our friend and CSA member Barbara.   Weed free and beautiful picking rows.  We will leave it open for a few days, quickly hoe any new weed growth and toss a layer of straw on top.

Tidy Zucchini rows.

A friend has taken up residence in the zucchini patch.  I see him there often when picking.  

We started planting our Fall harvest crops.  More broccoli, cabbage and kohlrabi went in last week and tomorrow long rows of cauliflower again.  The daikon radish was planted and Swiss Chard started in the greenhouse again.  We are preparing beds for big sturdy storage carrots and will plant by the end of  this week.  Our garlic harvest will start and the fingerling potatoes will come out.  A big “to do” list.

WHAT IS IN YOUR SHARE

320 pounds of garden delights went out the door today.

SNACK PACK

Beets-3 varieties.  The beet greens are eatable too.

Fennel-Makes a delicious salad with beets and cabbage.  Wonderful roasted as well.

Cabbage-An early mini head.  Perfect for slaw, salad or stir fry.

Zucchini-The plants are really starting to produce!  We planted 4 different varieties this year and an assortment will appear in your box throughout the season.  We pick them small and tender.

Scott and Maeve packing potatoes.

Potatoes-  Early Red Norland.  Perfect steamed, fried or mashed.

Cucumbers-Little Munchers.  We saw these appear at the grocery stores last year and loved them.  We scouted out the seed and are testing out 4 varieties.  Enjoy!

Garlic Scapes-The end of these for the season.  True garlic harvest starts this week.

Sweet Thai Basil-A delicious and unique tasting basil.  Great addition to chicken marinades, salad dressing, stir fries or soups.

FULL SHARE

Pac Choi-I do think this is my favorite “green” this year.  LOVE! it fresh as a salad and even more braised with the scapes and a bit of soy.

Cabbage-An early mini head.  Perfect for slaw, salad or stir fry.

Kale-An assorted bundle.  We planted 6 different variety.  Makes wonderful Kale Crisps or fresh in salads.  Great addition to smoothies.

Zucchini-The plants are really starting to produce!  We planted 4 different varieties this year and an assortment will appear in your box throughout the season.  We pick them small and tender.

A funny little guy is going home with someone today.

Eggplant-The plants are going nuts out there!  We have NEVER had eggplant this early.  3 varieties planted so an assortment in the boxes.

Potatoes-  Early Red Norland.  Perfect  steamed, fried or mashed.

Cucumbers-Little Munchers.  We saw these appear at the grocery stores last year and loved them.  We scouted out the seed and are testing out 4 varieties.  Enjoy!

Long Slicers on the vine.

Slicing Cucumbers-Just picked!  The first of the season.

Garlic Scapes-The end of these for the season.  True garlic harvest starts this week.

Sweet Thai Basil-A delicious and unique tasting basil.  Great addition to marinades, salad dressing stir fries or soup.

Hope everyone had a wonderful 4th of July Holiday weekend.

BEST GUESS FOR NEXT WEEK-cucumbers, garlic, potatoes, zucchini, lettuce, eggplant, beans????, cherry tomatoes?????, + more.

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