foxlinecityfarm

A perfect week.  The heat broke and we loved it.  This is the time of year where we play beat the clock.  It is time and time now to get the last of many crops in IF we are going to be able to harvest at maturity before frost and diminished day length.  So, a bit of scurrying and all is good.  A few “hail Mary” crops like 1 more rotation of beans…we had the space so let’s see if they make it-an end of season treat.

We love that tomato harvest has begun….the plants are loaded and slicers just starting to color up.  Looks like it is going to be a bountiful year.

Cherry tomatoes on the vine.

Plants are loaded with cherry tomatoes…

And potato harvesting has begun.  We are very pleased with the yield.  We will be eating a lot of potatoes.

Scott and Maeve harvesting potatoes.

Just dug.

Field taste test.

Look at those beauties.

CSA SUMMER SHARE #7

WHAT IS IN YOUR SHARE….551 POUNDS GOING OUT THE DOOR TODAY. 

lettuce, parsley, red norland potatoes, cucumber mix, european slice cucumbers, dill, summer squash, pepper, onion, purple bean, cherry tomatoes, beta mix (baby swiss chard and beet tops)

Lettuce-Another week of great summer crisp head lettuce from the hoop house.  We are grateful as it is difficult to grow lettuce in a humid heat wave.  Heavy shade cloth, good circulation and light watering several times a day did the trick.

Red Norland Potatoes-Nothing better than just dug potatoes after a long winter of eating stored potatoes.  Enjoy and lots more to come.

Scott weighing out potatoes for the share.

Parsley-Of Course we had to have parsley for the potatoes!  Flat leaf Italian.

Parsley Harvest in the morning.

Cucumber mix AND European Slice cucumbers-  A bag of mixed munchers and another bag of skinny slicers.  Great cucumber harvest this week…and tons! on the extra table too.

We pick cucumbers every day…and it blows me away what we harvest.  How do they grow that much over night?!

Dill-Another of course we had to pack dill this week for the cucumbers….

Dill with morning dew at harvest.

Summer Squash-The bounty continues.  We love the solid yellow ones best-A new variety for us this year.

Summer Squash daily picks…always over 40-and yesterday 97!

Peppers-The big surprise of the week.  They sure loved the heat last week.

1st pepper harvest.

Sweet Summer Onion-1st pick of the season-more to come.  SWEET!

Scott pulling onions.

And in his “office” cleaning. them.

Purple beans-A HUGE bounty and enjoy them alllllllllll!  We are blown away with the harvest.

Cherry tomatoes-Thrilled that we were able to harvest enough for all shares this week.

LOVE!

Beta Mix-2nd cutting off my favorite leafy green we grow.  We saute it with garlic and onions and eat as a side dish or fantastic as a fresh salad too.

Morning Beta mix harvest.

BEST GUESS FOR NEXT WEEK-Cherry tomatoes, potatoes, garlic, chinese cabbage, leaf lettuce, cucumbers, summer squash and more….

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A much needed soaking rain last night and this morning.  Just under an inch.  We have been running irrigation day and night in the gardens the past week to keep up with the high heat and wind.  The plants are loving this weather-we are wilting a bit but chugging on.  Our days start extra early and a break mid day and then back out until dark.  A good routine to try and stay out of the worst of the heat.  Beans, cucumbers and summer squash have to be picked daily.  We transplanted out more broccoli and chinese cabbage and seeded in lettuce rotations and started Fall Spinach.  Beets were thinned and the carrots too.  We are staying on top of things so far.  The key to it all is just let the garden carry you and float through the day of work.  We are happy and just thrilled with the gardens this year.  Potato digging next week and giant sweet summer onions will come out of the ground.  Baby watermelon are forming and the cherry tomatoes are really starting to color up.

SUMMER SHARE #6

What is in your share.  418 pound of amazing produce going home with members this week.  A bounty.

Full

Snack

head lettuce, pointy mini cabbage, green beans, cucumber mix, english slicing cucumber, summer squash mix, pink celery, garlic, mini kale mix, pac choi and pepper (full only)

Head lettuce-A fantastic lettuce harvest this week in the early morning light.  Tricky to grow flavorful lettuce in high heat.  We did it and it is a great summer crisp.

This week’s lettuce harvest chilling in the dunk tank.

Pointy cabbage-We love growing mini heads.  Perfect size for the CSA.  Maeve helped with the harvest and we blasted through the job.

Morning cabbage harvest.

Green beans-We picked every day!  Over night they would double in size.  We were amazed but zipped down the rows.

Scott weighing out the beans.

Cucumber mix-An assortment of the varieties we grew in every share-including the favorite salt and pepper.

Salt and pepper cucumbers at harvest.

European slice cucumber-1st big pick.  1 for everyone.

Mix Summer Squash-A bounty harvest this week.  EVERY morning we made the rounds and 40+ were cut.  AND our second patch is starting to produce too!

Summer Squash ready to pack in shares.

PINK Celery-We wanted to try this just for fun.  It is beautiful and the flavor strong.  Great in cucumber dishes, soups and added to salads.

Pink Celery at harvest.

Triple rinse before bundling.

Garlic-Just dug fresh garlic!  A treat.

Garlic sorting.

Mini Kale Mix-  Snipped from the hoop house.  makes a great salad or saute side.

Triple rinsed and ready to be packaged off for the shares.

Pac choi-I am on a huge pac choi kick.  I LOVE it.  Raw my favorite in fresh salads for a juicy crunch but saute with garlic or scapes and it is a treat.

Mini green pac choi at harvest.

Mini Green Summer Pac choi.

Peppers-(Full only) just picked this morning.  A bit of a surprise.  A sweet pepper.

Picked in the rain this morning.

BEST GUESS FOR NEXT WEEK-Potatoes!, onions, parsley, cucumbers, dill, summer squash purple beans and more….

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A near perfect work week in the gardens.  Best news is our gamble paid off in the pea/summer squash area.  We had to do a bit of dancing around for 2 days but within hours of the last shelling peas picked the vines were down and trellises out.  We made it and it is a relief.  Now wide open spaces just like we like it.

Last pea picking….It’s tight!

Hauling the pea vines out.

Wide open spaces.

We would like to congratulate all CSA members for eating more peas than previously thought humanly possible last week.  Our best pea harvest EVER!  Well over 200 pounds of sugar snap peas came out of the patch last week and 130 pounds shellers.  Amazing!

We spent the week weeding and harvesting.  Daily cucumber and zucchini picks are a “must do”.  400 kohlrabi went out, and 300 broccoli too.  And this is the detail that made the week only near perfect….we have a nibbler that is fond of broccoli.  An evening visitor that likes a midnight snack.  We have lost a bit of broccoli BUT good news is we have extra to replace.  So no real problem just time.

The tomatoes have grown to the tops of the trellises and look fantastic.  Plants are loaded and cherry tomatoes around the corner.

Scott tying up the tomatoes…

We checked on the potatoes…nice sized ping pong balls-a few weeks out.  Onions are sizing up and we had our first bean picking yesterday.  The bounty of summer has begun.

SUMMER SHARE #5

WHAT IS IN YOUR SHARE-head lettuce, fennel, mini cabbage head, broccoli, cucumbers!, zucchini, shell peas (snack only), sugar snap peas (tiny bag), garlic scapes, bunching onions, beta mix (mini swiss chard/beet tops), green beans (full only)

Full Share

Snack Pack

Head lettuce-A delicious summer crunch.  Great flavor and a great harvest from the hoop house.

Fennel-We love a fennel coleslaw.  Also grilled is delicious, and sliced thin it is a nice addition to a fresh salad.

Fennel at harvest.

Great Fennel harvest this rotation.

Scott hanging out at the compost pile trimming the tops off the fennel.

Ready for washing.

Mini Cabbage-The perfect size for the CSA.  It is crisp and flavorful.

Mini cabbage at harvest.

Beauties in the sun.

Broccoli-More of the great broccoli harvest this week.  We are thrilled!

Broccoli with morning dew.

Cucumbers-They are here!  We planted 9 different varieties including our favorite salt and peppers.  A mix will appear every week in all shares for many weeks to come.

Delicious!

Zucchini-Huge harvest from the summer squash patch this week.  The plants are jumping into action with all this heat.

Sunshine at morning harvest.

Shelling Peas-(snack pack only)-Shell and eat the peas inside.  Delicious raw with salads or lightly steamed they are a treat.

Garlic Scapes-These are the last of the scapes.  Tastes just like garlic.

The last of the scapes and garlic harvest begins next week.

Bunching onions-These are a stronger flavored onion and just the right size to add a little zing to your meals.

We harvested white and these purple beauties to go in the shares this week.

Beta Mix-This is my favorite green mix.  Love it fresh or sauteed.  And so pretty on the plate.

Beta mix harvest in the early morning sun….note the loooooooooong rows of Fall carrots behind the tub. They are different colored carrots!

Green Beans-(full share only)-1st pick was yesterday.  The bushes are just starting to produce and we have 3 rotations of beans in the field.  It’s going to be a great bean year.

Green beans at harvest.

BEST GUESS FOR NEXT WEEK-Summer Squash, cucumbers, lettuce, fresh garlic, pointy cabbage, pink! celery and more….

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The only way to say it…It has been an amazing week in the gardens! Yes, HOT!  but the plants are loving it and growing like crazy.  We are in the thick of our best pea crop (over 100 pounds in 3 days) ever I think.  Summer Squash vines are creeping closer with our big great idea to plant the summer squash in between the pea row experiment. Plenty of time we thought waaaaaaay back then.  Well, we are sweating it out now but think we will make it.  Tight but tight is ok.

summer squash tickles..

and a back rub.

Best broccoli harvest too.  Abundance.  Tomatoes are forming, potatoes are flowering and beans too-finally after a late start due to cool Spring.  Brussel Sprout Paradise is thriving.  We decided to go all out with these beauties.  Oh, we nibbled on our first cucumber yesterday.  Summer is rushing in….

Brussels Sprout Paradise.

!st Cucumber of the season.

If we were not picking peas this week we were weeding.  Beds are perfect but row cultivation has to wait due to wet conditions…

Weeded out carrot trough.

Kohlrabi was transplanted out into the garden this week and more beets and carrots seeded in.  We are starting to think about Fall crops already…Crazy!

SUMMER SHARE #5

Full

Snack

WHAT IS IN YOUR SHARE

414 pounds of garden abundance!

Broccoli, head lettuce, snow peas (snack only), carrots, swiss chard, chinese cabbage, zucchini, turnips (full only), shelling peas (full only).

Broccoli-Huge broccoli harvest.  Great head size.  This is our favorite variety to grow.  Small bead in formation and delicious.

Early morning harvest before the heat sets in….

Head Lettuce- We harvested 4 varieties this week.  1 head in every Snack and 3 mini heads in Full.

Snow peas-(Snack only)-Thick long fat pods. Delicious raw in salad or lightly steamed.

Sugar Snap Peas-HUGE! harvest!  Enjoy.  Snap the top off pull the thread and eat-pod and all.  We harvested 3 different varieties this week.  Each a little different.

Sugar Snap peas ready to go home with members.

Carrots-1st carrot harvest is always the best.  Roasted or fresh nothing better.

Swiss Chard-Beautiful.  Delicious with eggs.

Swiss Chard chilling in the dunk tank.

Chinese Cabbage-Great harvest.  We planted 2 sizes a medium and mini.  We saute or eat raw in salads.

Chinese Cabbage ready to cut.

Chinese Cabbage at harvest.

We had a HUGE Chinese Cabbage head grow in the garden.  Maybe a larger variety seed was mixed in or maybe water???  Who knows but he is gigantic.  We are sneaking it into a share as a surprise.  Farmer humor.

Twice the size of a normal guy.

Zucchini-Here we go…..officially summer.

Shelling Peas-(Full Only)-1st harvest of these sweet shellers.  2 varieties.

1st shellers of the season.

BEST GUESS FOR NEXT WEEK-fennel, mini head cabbage, lettuce, peas, cucumbers??? and more….

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