Dry spell

Crops are slowing down because of the dry spell we're in.  Hopefully, a bit of rain will revive the greens and bring squash, cucumber and bean production back up.  In the meantime, enjoy the tomatoes!  They don't mind the dry

weather at all.  

This week, we have lots of tomatoes, some hot and sweet peppers, lots of fresh onions and cured garlic, tons (literally) of potatoes and a good variety of herbs, greens and other vegetables.

See you at the market!

Erik and Sara

News from the Garden

Wildlife Report: We continue to see the little brown grass snakes and an occasional garter snake in the gardens, usually hiding under row cover or in a leaf pile.  The toads have been scarce recently, I assume because of the dry spell.  The neighbors’ honey bees have done a nice job of pollinating the squash and cucumbers in our garden, but the wild bees seem scarce.  Plenty of hornets and wasps, though!  

We have been lucky that the deer have respected our big fence this summer better than last, meaning a lot more lettuces and beets for you.  This has been a bumper rabbit year, as I’m sure you have noticed.  Even in our wide open gardens, we have had a few litters of them, and we find that they really like cucumbers!  

There have been a lot of killdeer in the gardens this year, feeding on the bare and recently seeded parts.  Not a bird we have regularly seen in past seasons.  

And lastly, our 5-month-old chicks (now young hens) just started laying their first eggs this week, right  on schedule. The girls are thrilled with the little brown eggs, and we are excited to see all the ‘varieties’ that our multicultural flock will produce.

The onion harvest went very well, and the storage varieties are drying down well in this weather.  We should have a bumper crop of yellow and red keepers, so look forward to a nice bag of them in October.  The potato harvest is also going well, with only a few rows left to dig.  Good size, great quantity and very disease-free.  Make the farmer happy!

More rain coming, please?

A half inch of rain

We unfortunately only got a half inch of rain out
of the two-day drizzle, but even that amount perked the plants up.  We quick got a bunch of fall lettuces transplanted while the weather was mild, and enjoyed working in the cooler temp's.
This week at market, we're featuring:

Red, white and yellow potatoes
Lots of head lettuces
Salanova lettuce mix
A new planting of sweet kohlrabi
Basil
Mild white and yellow onions and mixed, fresh cippolini onions
Chard and Kale
Red cabbage
Gorgeous sunflowers
Cherry tomatoes
Lots of red and heirloom slicer tomatoes
Piles of cucumbers and dill heads for fresh eating and pickling
Beautiful Italian globe eggplant
German White cured garlic
Jalapeno and Serrano hot peppers
A new crop of beets

Coming soon ...... more sweet peppers and green beans.

On another topic: Come down to the Arthaus Courtyard Friday night (8/21) at 7:00 for a lively acoustic show featuring the dance band I play with, Contratopia (http://www.contratopia.com/index.htm).  Lots of original and traditional reels, jigs and waltzes with some great musicians.  Music that makes you smile!

See you at the market.

Spring Planting/Music Lessons

My 9-year-old daughter and I planted some of the first crops in the garden a few weeks ago.  It was one of the sunny, mild days, and we were quickly forgetting about the 12” of snow that had fallen a week earlier.  The soil was cool, but dry enough to till, so I cleaned up the tiller and made a few passes in the half-acre designated for ‘first-early’ crops.

Our priority was sugar snap peas, a family favorite and a crop that loves cool weather.  I dragged a triangle hoe through the tilled soil and opened a 5# bag of pea seed.  Mairi found the wrinkled, green seeds ‘cute’ and soon found a few off-types that looked more like soybeans.  Peas and beans seeds are very kid-friendly because they are big and easy to handle.

Their germination rate isn’t always stellar, however, so I wanted to get quite a few seeds per row foot.  Mairi has been studying piano for several years now, so I told her to space the peas about a half-step apart, meaning the short distance between two fingers when they are touching.  I showed her how to grab a whole handful of pea seeds out of the bag and then drop them out slowly, but not too slowly in the row as you walk at a steady pace.  After making six, 140-foot rows, I followed Mairi with the hoe, now pulling soil over the seeds and tamping it down.  

Continuing with the music theme, I had Mairi plant some spinach at a distance of a major third apart, and radishes at 12 per octave.  I think she did pretty well!  A few days later, we covered all of the seed beds with floating row cover, to keep them a little warmer and to ward off hungry crows whose favorite spring treat is pea shoots.

Since they were seeded, we have had more snow, lots of good rain, some warm, sunny days and some cold, cloudy days.  Because the soil temperature is so cool, germination this time of year is much slower than in the summer, so the seeds are just now starting to emerge.  Patience, patience.  The peas will be ready in mid-June, I’m sure, just as they always are, but the radishes may be ready to pull by late May.  Mid-spring is all about transition and hope and milestones and not getting ahead of yourself.  Everything will speed up soon enough.

Because we are in planting mode, it is important to know how many CSA members we are growing food for.  If you have not signed up for the Patchwork Green Farm 2015 CSA yet, and would like to, please do so in the next two weeks, if at all possible.  Go to our website, patchworkfarm.com for ordering details.