heat.

reetings from a hot kitchen,

Nice and hot! that's what makes the food grow. If all we had all summer was breezy, sunny days and cool, refreshing nights we would have to get used to the idea of cabbage, turnips, and beets year 'round (not too bad sounding to some of us). Hot stickiness and sweltering, barely a sheet over your toes nights are what grows zucchini, peppers, tomatoes, watermelons - in other words - most people's garden favorites. When you feel like swimming is when the plants say, oh yeah, bring it on, and starts really luxuriating, sending green lushness out all over the place. Sounds nice, eh? The other key component is water. So, we were given the heat, and here at the farm we've been spending time getting water out to all those plants so that they can really flourish this week.

This week's tasks, in no order of importance: transplant fall broccoli, fall cabbage, cauliflower, kale, lettuce (about 120 flats), seed 100 flats of fall starts. Irrigate potatoes, cherry tomatoes, paste tomatoes, carrots, beets, parsnips, chard, kale, broccoli, lettuce, onions (includes setting up irrigation infrastructure on some of these items), harvest, wash and distribute for 375 members, mow grass pathways between vegetables, spray out all harvest bins, sucker and trellis all greenhouse crops, trellis outdoor tomatillos and tomatoes, move chickens to old strawberries (includes moving chicken house, fencing, feed, and automatic waterers), tractor cultivate, till in and seed finished spring crops down to summer cover of oat and buckwheat. This is a week that we are not that busy - most crops are growing and just need maintenance. The craze of spring planting is over and the flurry of fall harvest still in the future.

Nuts and Bolts:

1. Please remember that the One Bag side of the distribution shed is measured with a normal plastic grocery bag. There is one hanging on the wall by the chalk board as an example. Of course we do not mind what kind of bag you use, but we do want everyone to be sure that the VOLUME that they take is equivalent to a plastic grocery bag. Thanks!

2. We will be hosting a NOFA-NY field day here on Wednesday, July 14th. Come if you want an in-depth discussion of the farm and CSA. https://www.nofany.org/events/field-days/tools-and-systems-starting-csa-farm

Veggie forecast:

kale, chard, beets with tops, spring onions (edible tops), cukes, summer squash, head lettuce, spinach, hakurei turnip (almost done til fall), herbs

u-pick:

peas (almost done), flowers, kale, chard, basil, dill, cilantro

Thanks all!