The dahlias are blooming and and their beauty is distracting me from the veggie harvests. I stopped in the middle of picking tomatoes on Saturday morning, grabbed my snips and cut a bouquet for the house. Once they were arranged in a vase on the kitchen counter I was happy and then returned to the tomatoes.
Ok, so the exciting news I mentioned last week... we bought a Potato Digger! A super sweet farmer up north sold us his potato digger over the weekend! Woohoo! This is exciting and should make our lives easier AND the timing couldn't be better as we're going to start harvesting potatoes very soon.
Red Cabbage... it's testing our patience more than anything this season and it may be one of the crops this year that just doesn't produce like normal? We'll see... they still have some time but as of right now they're looking a little rough. So much so that Mike just wants to flail mow the cabbage blocks so we can move on and cover crop. Mmmm hmmm. I think we'll give them another week or two to size up before we go that route!?
Look who's decided to join the party! The Cauliflower has arrived. A solid 2+ weeks behind schedule BUT they're huge so we're not going to worry about it. We planted three successions this year so I'm hoping we have a solid supply for a few weeks, that just gets sweeter as the temps get cooler, up until the first hard freeze? Fingers crossed.
Onion harvest! Onions are one of my favorites to grow, as they're the first crop to be seeded in January and to be transplanted into the field in the Spring. They keep me guessing all season as to whether or not they're actually going to size up and then when they finally do in August it feels a bit magical. Growing and harvesting roots out of is a deeply satisfying activity that I think everybody needs to experience... We smelled like onions for days after pulling out the first storage onions of the season! The red onions and a trial yellow are out of the field and our main yellow storage onion is close... I noticed their tops starting to fall on Sunday (how awesome is it that onions tell you when they're ready to harvest?) so they may be coming out of the field by the end of the week? The Walla Walla Onions have been making their way into your CSA Shares, be sure to eat these onions quick as they're not ones that store well. They're sweet and juicy and are best eaten fresh!
The other exciting news.... we hired an awesome crew to install the insulation, siding and roof on the new wash/pack building and now it's so much closer to being complete! We started to worry a couple weeks ago when we would get to this ourselves as the harvests are all consuming at the moment and aren't going to let up for a while. So, we decided it was best to focus on what we're good at (farming) and hire a crew that has more experience building, and we're so happy we did. It's coming along nicely and we'll have photos to share next week. Stay tuned.
CSA Harvest - Week #14
Cauliflower, Broccoli, Salad Greens, Chard, Cucumber, Zucchini, Sweet Peppers, Jalapenos, Tomatoes, Cherry Tomatoes, Basil, Beets, Carrots, Purple Daikon and Walla Walla Onion.