Dig It

Last week was fairly similar to the two before it, but yielded even more cucumbers (six in each box) and cantaloupe (two or three in each box). When I wasn’t harvesting, I was ripping off egg-covered cucurbit leaves and pulling up old squash plants in an attempt to give those pesky bugs less of a reason to stick around.

The rest of the box’s contents: one eggplant, two pints cherry tomatoes, one pint heirloom tomatoes, one pint tomatillos, four or five assorted peppers (green bell, purple star, sweet chocolate or ancho), one pint okra, one red and one yellow onion, one sandwich-sized Ziploc bag basil.

After the jump, the recipes that I sent out. Click images to enlarge.

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As August comes to a close, it’s time for me to start thinking of soil tests and cover crops and leaving the farm for the winter. But it’s hard to concentrate on all of that when the house is filled with the smell of cucumbers and cantaloupe!

The cucumbers were hard to start, with seeds not germinating and plants slow to grow, and the melons were planted rather late. But for the past couple of weeks, I’ve given out four or five cucumbers to every subscriber, and last week began what I hope will be a regular harvest of melons lasting through the rest of the summer season. Because I had no experience growing cantaloupe, I told my dad to pick out what we should plant. He chose two varieties: the two- to three-pound Isabella and the five-pound Ambrosia, both from Burpee’s. The smaller variety doesn’t slip off the stem like a ripe cantaloupe should, so it’s been hard for me to harvest them before the fruits split open in the field. The larger variety, however, has been a breeze to grow and pick, and is super delicious to boot.

The contents of Week Ten’s box: zucchini or summer squash, spaghetti squash, eggplant, cucumbers, one green bell pepper, two pints cherry tomatoes, one quart heirloom tomatoes, one pint tomatillos, one sandwich-sized Ziploc bag basil and one quart okra, for those who requested it.

The contents of Week Eleven’s box: cucumbers, eggplant, one green bell or ancho pepper, one pint cherry tomatoes, one quart heirloom tomatoes, one pint okra (for everyone), one bunch onions (one red, one yellow), one bunch carrots, one sandwich-sized Ziploc bag basil and one cantaloupe or watermelon for about half of the subscribers.

After the jump, the recipes that I sent out. Click images to enlarge.

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I’ve known since the spring that I would save whatever seed I could, to encourage self-sufficiency in whatever areas I could. Last week I brushed up on my seed-saving skills with this video, and then got to work processing the bundles that had been drying in the greenhouse. Below, some photos of the process. Click images to enlarge:

The contents of this week’s box: zucchini, summer squash, eggplant, three pints cherry tomatoes, one pint heirloom tomatoes, one pint tomatillos (the first of the season), two onions, one bunch garlic, mint and okra.

Declining squash harvests are still a disappointment, but I noticed new growth all week, including the ripening of a couple of cucumbers and two varieties of peppers (green and purple bell). And perhaps more importantly, the melons should be set soon. I spent a couple of hours earlier in the week placing cantaloupe on overturned flower pots, to keep them from rotting on ground that is too damp. I cannot wait to see a yellow one that isn’t rotten waiting in the field.

I’ve also been attempting to keep pests from harming our new squash plants, wrapping aluminum foil around their stems to stave off squash vine borers (the adults of whom are now out of the old squash plants and in the air, just waiting to do more damage) and checking their leaves for eggs. But the bugs can be overwhelming. Last week, I discovered grasshopper damage on now-chewed-down okra leaves, cucumber beetle damage on now-skeletonized pumpkin leaves and a new sort of egg (that of the leaf-footed bug) to worry about. I now understand the value of floating row covers—it might be a chore to hand-pollinate plants, but worth it to avoid all of these insects (and the egg-searching and pyrethrin-spraying that come with them).

After the jump, the recipes that I sent out. Click images to enlarge.

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This farm project is based on the idea of sustainable agriculture, which involves enhancing the environment as well as reaping resources from it.  Evidence of the farm’s environmental health has been most obvious, to me, in the number of birds that have taken to hunting for insects among the vegetable beds. I see mockingbirds and finches fairly often, but this morning was the first that I’ve seen a hummingbird at the farm, flitting from tomatillo blossom to tomatillo blossom.

Eight weeks down, nine left to go. It’s hard to believe that the farm has come this far! The tomato plants are still reeling from this month’s rain damage (some of them have just this week developed brown and withered leaves, which I’m hoping is a simple-to-solve case of not having enough nutrients), the squash plants have been knocked out by cucumber beetles and stink bugs, and I’ve found what looks like crow damage on some of the almost-ripe watermelons. Nevertheless, the boxes keep getting better!

The contents of this week’s box: zucchini or summer squash (harvests are down, but replacement plants are in the ground), Yukon Gold potatoes (only about four or five per box, thanks to lower-than-expected yields), one bunch Chantenay carrots, eggplant, two pints cherry tomatoes, one pint garden peach tomatoes, one quart heirloom tomatoes, one bag basil and okra for some of those who requested it.

I also harvested a few other things this week. First, the entirety of the spaghetti squash bed, as the plants were near death after a bad squash vine borer infestation (I even found a few borers in the fruits). I baked one (damaged, of course) for an incredible dinner a few nights ago and decided that I will definitely be growing these again. Second, seed. There are a few plants (the mustard greens, in particular) whose seed I’d like to save for next season, and a few herbs (coriander, dill), whose seed will be a great addition to our kitchen’s spice cabinet. Several bundles of dried plants, seed pods attached, are waiting on towels in the greenhouse, and should be processed next week.

After the jump, the recipes that I sent out. Click images to enlarge.

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I’ve skipped out on updating this site these past couple of weeks, but not because things at the farm have been slow. Instead, the subscriber boxes have been getting heavier and heavier, and produce has started to fill up our fridge and pile over the dining room table.

The contents of last week’s box: zucchini, summer squash, one bunch carrots, one pint cherry tomatoes, one yellow onion, basil, an herb blend and okra for some of those who requested it. Tons of rain (almost five inches in one weekend, plus a couple more inches in the following days) caused most of the ripening cherries to split, particularly the oblong ones. So, pints were dominated by the black cherry, a darker fruit that comes close to an heirloom in flavor.

The contents of this week’s box: zucchini, summer squash, eggplant, the last fennel of the season (as the bulbs were beginning to bolt), three pints cherry tomatoes, one quart heirloom tomatoes, basil and again, okra for some of those who requested it. I spent the week being bombarded with two things: tomatoes (which the chickens appreciated) and bugs.

To add to the list of pests I’ve waged war upon this season: squash vine borers, squash bugs and the colorado potato beetle. I often wonder where all these bugs come from, if they’ve followed me from Southern Maryland and brought along all of their friends. But I handle them one day at a time and have developed a knack for noticing even the smallest evidence of their presence–a cluster of eggs here, a missing leaf there. Earlier this week we spotted the deep purple chrysalis of a tobacco hornworm, half-buried in the dirt, one end wriggling about. SO disgusting.

After the jump, the recipes that I sent out. Click images to enlarge.

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In April, I planted a small bed of Early Italian garlic bulbs, ordered from Burpee’s. Last week, I noticed that the stalks had gone from green to brown, so on Thursday I harvested the bulbs. I lost a few to bugs (onion maggots, I think), but ended up with 30 bunches in all, just enough to include two in each box. The “seconds” (those bulbs whose stalks were torn off or which were sliced with a shovel) I saved for myself. The bunches are now drying in the shed at Tilghman, and should be ready to send out in two or three weeks.

This week was a hot one. I arrived at the farm earlier than usual on Wednesday to finish the morning’s harvest fast, but was forced to stay later than expected when I realized that a horde of harlequin bugs had started chomping up my tomatillos. I spotted the stinkbug relative and ladybug look-a-like earlier in the week, crawling up and down the winter greens, but left them alone since I no longer need those plants. But once they began to migrate and mate, I sprayed with pyrethrin, the same biological insecticide that rid me of flea beetles in the spring.

The contents of this week’s box: zucchini, summer squash, fennel, one Mars (red) and one Aisla Craig Exhibition (yellow) onion, basil, dill and a handful of cherry tomatoes. Just one of the larger tomato varieties has borne ripe fruit so far: garden peach, a pale yellow fruit that’s covered with fuzz. But the rows of heirloom plants are heavy with green tomatoes, so I hope that in another week or so I’ll be able to send them out as well. I’ve also begun to harvest okra, and on Friday noticed the first few eggplants of the season.

After the jump, the recipes that I sent out. Click images to enlarge.

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Just a few: