summer is here, it is finally warming up into the 70ies.
The hard rains and cold have taken some toll on the warm loving plants. Basil,
peppers, beans and squashes turned yellow and look upset. Since the last few
days were warmer I see some new green leaves coming, but they will be slower
to come in for harvest this year.
Carrot planting one and two got
flooded with soil and have a hard time coming up through the extra soil.
The Mixed Greens planted into weed free buckwheat residue have severe
nutrient lack, because the buckwheat straw ties up the nitrate to break it
down and cold weather did not help. The greens grow at a snail pace and
the orders from the customers poor in and I have to tell everybody to only get
half of what they want. The spinach is getting a bout of fusarium, a
fungus which eats the tap root so it dies. We have enough for you CSA
members but I did only go to market for the two hours CSA pick up with $25 of
produce to sell.
The peas and parsnips are very happy and the garlic is
growing fast. This week we get to pick 13,000 scapes, the garlic flowers
that you see in your boxes, the curly things.
Garlic scapes are great in
omelet, stir-fry salad dressing, you can make garlic pesto or garlic
vinegar. Use it as you would use garlic.
The peas are sugar snap
peas( You eat the whole pea, don't need to shell it) and should be eaten soon
as they loose their sweetness in a day or two. We have a lot of those
coming on this week.
For you Extra Leafy people, we will keep you in spinach
for a while, because the kale, collards and chard we planted and mulched right
away so we would not have to weed them later got devoured by snails that do
well in wet weather and seem to like cozy mulch. I crawled under the
netting to see 1/2 of the broccoli, cauliflower and kale totally gone and
orange snails clinging to the ones left. We need warm weather for the
plants to grow fast and outgrow the size where they can't take a chew or two.
Flowers are slow to cold weather. I will let you know when they
come on. Last week was the last end of Irises.
So all the above might
seem demoralizing, but the energy and mood is good. We have built a team
and people are working hand in hand. In the next two weeks we should get
in all the fall root crops and after that planting will slow down as weeding
and harvesting pick up. I have faith that it will turn out to be a good
season after all.
Seba is planning to come home to play music for
the garlic festival July 13,14 and stay for a week with us. He is eager
to work in the garden as he has not found a good job jet in Boston.
I am attaching a few recipes for scapes and spinach. There is anew cook book
Asparagus to Zucchini two out, we don't have it yet.
The two remaining
ducks have adjusted and keep laying eggs, but won't sit on them. Maybe we
just have to order ducklings.
My friend Jeff Thayer and I are also
dreaming about a cow. We have several prospects, but non of them are
likely to happen as the farmers like them and probably will keep them. We
are locating milk cans and equipment for cheese making for the farm. This
is so exciting to just talk about it. I am really a cow person at heart.
Veggies give you a weekend and vacations. So I am not rushing into the
milking frenzy yet.
See you soon, Dulli
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