Archives
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 [...]
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 [...]
I was fortunate enough to have a bunch of help with this week’s harvest, so filling the boxes was a breeze. The contents: lettuce heads, zucchini, summer squash, one bunch Sierra Blanca onions, one bunch rainbow chard, one bag basil and one bag herb blend, which included sage, oregano and thyme. I still don’t have [...]
Low harvests led me to take last week off, but CSA deliveries were back to normal on Wednesday. The contents of this week’s box: fennel, zucchini, flat-leaf parsley, basil, arugula flowers and heads of lettuce. I thought the salad was dunzo when the weather turned hot and the plants began to bolt, but I was [...]
I found a tobacco hornworm earlier this week, hidden in the foliage of a tomato plant. I’m used to seeing these caterpillars with small white eggs emerging from their backs (the eggs of the braconid wasp), but this dude was parasite-free and eager to eat. Hornworms, so named for the sharp spike on their backs, [...]
Another week, another round of deliveries! The contents: one sandwich-sized bag arugula, one sandwich-sized bag mixed mustard greens and kale, one snack-sized bag sugar snap peas, one bunch flat-leaf parsley, one bunch basil, one bunch spring onions and one bag edible mustard and arugula flowers. While I wish the boxes could be bigger, I’m pleased [...]
This past Wednesday marked the season’s first CSA deliveries. The contents: one head lettuce, one gallon-sized Ziploc salad mix, one quart-sized Ziploc mustard greens, one sandwich-sized Ziploc arugula, one bunch flat-leaf parsley and one bag “garnish,” made up of a few sprigs of amaranth and six sugar snap peas (I know, ridiculous. But it was [...]
It’s hard to believe, but deliveries start next week. I am SO thrilled that the season is close to starting. I’ve been focused on planting since mid-May, and while that can be satisfying in a where-there-once-were-weeds-there-are-now-rows-upon-rows-of-tomatoes sort of way, it will be nice to harvest for a change. I’ve been combing through cookbooks looking for [...]
I’ve been paranoid about pests (deer! Groundhogs! Potato beetles!) ever since I started this project. Last week, I encountered my first one: the flea beetle, which has been RAVAGING the winter greens. A friend suggested I spray with a botanical insecticide. I picked up a bottle of pyrethrin last week and tested it out on [...]