In the Share: Week 15

SWEET PEPPERS F/P  We love our new yellow horn-shaped variety, it goes so well with our favorite sweet pepper ever, the lovely-in-red Carmen.  Throw our orange Islanders, and we just harvested edible sunshine.

TOMATOES F/P  Some big boys are coming in now from the new planting.  If you don't get one this week, than you will by next week.

RED ONIONS F/P  it was a good onion crop this year and we are sharing the bounty.

SUMMER SQUASH F  Either zucchini or yellow squash or a bit of both.

EGGPLANT F  We are picking them young to keep them tender.

CARROTS F/P  Everyone gets white and yellow varieties from storage this week.  They are big and sweet, perfect for roasting.

DESIREE POTATOES F  Light pink skin covers a creamy yellow flesh.  Delicious!  We'll share more of this lovely potato next week.

HERB CHOICE F/P  Basil or summer savory

NEXT WEEK:  Peppers, tomatoes, potatoes, onions, garlic, eggplant, squash, herbs and perhaps some cucumbers.

FARM REPORT:
It was the week that the farm made it over the hump of the growing season.  Most of the fall crops are planted.  The tomato crop is mostly in.  The days are noticeably shortening. The farmer sighs with relief.

The drier air today is incredible after a long, hot, humid summer.  Humidity is not just hard on workers in the fields, but on our organic crops.  Here's a typical foggy morning from this week.

Humidity breeds fungus which attacks many of the summer fruits.  Fungicides are very prevalent on non-organic farms and on non-organic tomatoes, peppers, squash, etc.  Not ours.  You will see some spot on our fruits this week, but they don't have the hidden spots of pesticide residue that you can't see.

Not that we never spray anything on the crops.  When all else fails, we use products that are allowed under the National Organic Program.  This week we uncovered a legion of blister beetles out in the fields devouring the fall beets.  The best time to catch the quick little buggers is at night, when they cluster on the tops of the plants. With the truck lights lighting our path, Tom and I did what we could.

We used Pyganic, a natural form of pyrethrin from the chrysanthemum flower, which seemed to not to do much to reduce the population of blister beetles.

Let's see now... I have covered two of the three enemies of the farmer:  disease and pests, now for the third:  weeds.  We are moving on many fronts to combat the weeds that have thrived during the tropical summer.  We have alot more to do including 3 of the 7 rows in the strawberry patch.  With cooler temperatures we hope to again see a big crowd on Wednesday and Saturday mornings so that we can catch up on the weeding.  Love your CSA strawberries?  Come on out and help us clean up the patch.