Things are growing like crazy out here, and it’s gotten hot now. I picked a whole big bowl of shell peas (with purple pods!) last week, and also sixteen zucchini and some lettuce. We ate a couple of the zucchini, but the rest of the harvest will go to the people subscribed to the farm. Then I picked another fifteen zucchini a couple days later. Amber didn’t realize how much they produce when we planted them. I’m not sure how many plants we have out there, but it may be our best producing vegetable! So it goes. Some of our tomato plants have green tomatoes on them, and the rest have flowers. That’s another thing we probably have way too many of, but no one complains about extra tomatoes. Popular vegetable, that one. All the peppers and eggplants and ground cherries (like sweet tomatillos) and pumpkins and cucumbers and melons have flowers on them. The cauliflower and cabbages are growing heads, and we have eaten a little bit of broccoli and some tatsoi (a japanese green kind of like spinach but a little tougher – it’s related to broccoli) that were either bolting or not enough to share with the csa. We’re still planting things, too. Always with the planting. Most of our transplants should be in the ground in the next week or so, and then we can turn our focus to maintenance and harvesting. With a harvest every week for fourteen people, we may need to continue succession planting a little at a time throughout.
Now that it’s hot, we’ll be watering things more and hoping for rain. We have to be careful not to tax the well too much at the same time. Lewis did set up a 1550 gallon rain catchment tank off the barn roof which was almost full when this stretch of sunny days began. We’re mulching most of the field with straw to help it retain water and keep the roots cool. That way they won’t require as much watering. It’s supposed to be super hot today.
