Farm Happenings at Hoot Owl Farm
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CSA Week #10 - Pick Up

Posted on July 15th, 2022 by Bonnie and Rudy Geber

It's time to pick up - don't forget! The pic above is of our Walla Walla sweet onions that some of you will find in your boxes this week. They are big and beautiful...and unfortunately not nearly as plentiful as we had planned. Walla Wallas are an overwintering onion that does well around here if you plant it in the fall, but leave it some level of protection over the winter (like a low tunnel) so that it can get an early start in the Spring. The problem is that you have to remember to start seeds for them in the heat of summer and also find time to plant them just when the season is winding down. Needless to say, we don't often make this mark, and we end up seeding them along with our other onions for an early Spring planting. This method should work as well, but you just won't get onions as early - about now. For whatever reason, our seed really didn't like being planted in February, and we had terrible germination and growth of our Walla Walla starts. So though these onions did turn out beautiful, we only have 1 bed of them instead of the 4 we'd planned on. So enjoy the sweetness while it lasts, we'll be on to our other onions soon and they had no problems whatsoever with their early Spring sowing -- go figure!

We look forward to seeing you all at pick up this week!

Cheers, Rudy & Bonnie

PS. The pic above also tells you that it's been HOT this week. Rudy only resorts to his collection of weird sun hats when the need is great - this one is a reflective top to shield from the sun's rays and any attempts at mind reading. Thanks go to Bonnie's Mom, Rita, for most of the contributions to the collection. She wants us to stay cool so bad that sometimes she forgets that we only have one head each so we have a pretty good collection to choose from when the temps rise!