Tomatoes and potatoes

It's not quite 90 degrees, but wow, it's been a hot week!  Very muggy, and not much in the way of breezes or clouds.  But, we should enjoy these late-summer days, right?  It sure ripens the tomatoes and zucchini quickly.  The crops are all looking much healthier than they were before the rain last week (an inch and a half out here), and they can withstand the heat when their feet are cool and wet.  We are hoping for more rain in the next week, and cooler temperatures will be good for all the fall brassica's (broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, kale, etc.).

This week at the market, you can get oodles of tomatoes, lots of fun colored sweet peppers and new crops of green and yellow beans.  The head lettuces are finally ready for a return (sorry about the lack of late August lettuces!), and we'll have kales, chard and lots of fresh herbs.  

Now that all the potatoes are harvested and in the root cellar, it's easy to bring more varieties to market each week.  We still have thousands of pounds of Red Maria (large, round white-flesh potatoes) and Carola (waxy, yellow-flesh), and we'll now bring in the All-Blue (blue on the inside and the outside) and Kennebec (large, dry-textured spud for baking and frying).

Don't forget that almost every dinner should start with some sauteed, roasted or just minced onion and garlic.  We still have the sweet/mild white and yellow onions, as well as the amazing cippolini roasting/boiling onions.  They should all still be refrigerated.  The garlic, on the other hand, is now fully cured, so you can keep it on the countertop indefinitely. 

We'll see you at the market!

Erik
Patchwork Green Farm