The construction for our new greenhouse began late this week. It’s coming together quickly with the amazing crew at Sommers Brothers managing the build. I am so grateful we aren’t trying to erect it and keep the farm going like we would have in earlier years. Let’s face it, they’ll do a much more professional job too! Jack has become their official mascot and is always in the middle of the action. I'm sure he is making the process much more efficient...
Once it’s ready we’ll stuff it full of crops for our winter share members. Three cheers for winter greens: hip hip hooray!
I’m delighted with how the winter carrots are coming up in the field. We managed, for the first time, to stale seedbed them really effectively. Stale seedbedding is a process where you prepare the soil, encourage the weeds to germinate, cultivate without bringing up additional weed seeds, then plant. I also calibrated my seeder just-so, so that they are perfectly spaced and we should have a crop of big juicy carrots to get us through the cold months.
You’ll notice several new crops are available this week (yay potatoes, yum sweet onions). Most of them will be around for quite some time, however, we are losing a battle with aphids in the sweet peppers and I’m fairly confident their fruits will be short lived. It’s been a rough year for insect pests but we are doing our very best, and I’m looking into proactive solutions for next year.
Two last things:
1. We are having a great year for basil and beets. If you are interested in large quantities of either for pesto or canning respectively, you can order them as extra's through Harvie. The pesto basil is $20 for a bushel, and the beets are $35 for a half bushel (25 lbs).
2. Some of our wonderful members have let us know that some of their greens hadn't been holding up as well as usual. We are so grateful to have been made aware of this, and so sorry that it happened. Looking into it we've realized that there was an issue with one of our walk-in coolers. We've made some changes to resolve this in the short term and have ordered a new and improved compressor as a long term solution. If you have had a quality issue please let us know so we can add a credit to your account.
That’s all for now folks, happy eating until next time!
Tamara
