In the Share - Week 16

okra

TOMATOES (F/P) Most of the fruit is coming from our “heat-set” hybrids, which are packed with flavor thanks to the drought.

POTATOES (F/P) This will be the last week of potatoes in the shares for the year. There is an assortment of fingerling, yellow and red.

GARLIC (F/P) After checking the seed garlic, we have enough to plant and some more we can hand out to you for a few more weeks.

CARROTS (F/P) Plain orange this week, no weird colors but boy are they sweet.

SWEET PEPPERS (P) A combination of shapes and sizes.

BEETS (F) The spring-planted bulk roots are shining right now as they help us over the hump to autumn.

CHOICE: OKRA, HOT PEPPERS, EGGPLANT, SALSA PACK, OR ONIONS (F) Choices, choices, there are many.

HERB CHOICE (F) Marjoram, parsley or a dried herb. We’ve pulled together some more dried herbs for the selection in order to give the basil a break. Any week you can choose a dried tin instead of a fresh herb.

ALSO THIS WEEK: Parker Farms CSA shares

NEXT WEEK: More tomatoes, sweet peppers, okra, hot peppers, carrots and onions. A few more beets.

FARM REPORT:

The farm is running full steam ahead as we have since the pace quickened sometime back in March. Every August we more-or-less repeat the Spring planting in order to have lots of tender greens and roots feeding us through the fall. The sweaty work is usually compensated by a bountiful end of the growing season. We are hopeful that we are headed in that direction. The irrigation pond is holding and has actually risen since we began filling it from the old pond. We are about finished with that process and think that we have plenty of water to make it until first frost.

We realize how very fortunate we are to be in this position. Farmers across the region are experiencing losses to crops and entire seasons of income. Today the weatherman said, he had “never seen anything like this”. Humidity is at a desert level, 17%. They talk of a chance of rain this weekend and we are hoping it happens despite having a busy weekend scheduled out of doors. We hope to get the high tunnel finished on Sunday with a good crew signed on to do the job. We will happily cancel and re-schedule if it means it is too muddy to work. We haven’t had been able to use that excuse since sometime in March or April!