Happy Monday!
There is so much happening on the farm these days it’s hard for Josh and I to keep track of what we accomplish just in one day alone! We appreciate everyone’s hard work as we have really made a push this past week to get the farm looking good before putting it on display at the potluck tonight. Hopefully you are looking forward to showing it off to family and friends tonight.
Greenhouse Update
I may have mentioned in a previous update that we’ve been having some mice problems in the shade structure. The day after we completed a big squash seeding, we noticed that many of the seeds had been dug up and chewed apart. Therefore, this week we went ahead and reseeded the squash that did not germinate in their cells. We’ve been covering the flats with row cover to help keep the mice away.
Nothing is scheduled to be seeded this week. Looking ahead at the schedule it’s pretty crazy to think that soon we will be seeding our fall brassicas. The season is certainly flying by!
Field Update
As I mentioned previously, we’ve been busy getting the farm in order to be put on display at the potluck. Mostly this has included weeding and mowing, both of which were done in abundance over the past few days.
Monday’s crew began trellising the red noodle pole beans. This is a new crop for Josh and I, so we will all be learning together as these grow. Many weeding projects also were completed on Monday including: picking grass out of the cabbage and kale, weeding the swiss chard, and finishing weeding the first succession of cilantro and dill. Additionally the leeks were hilled for a 3rd time, and the most recent succession of turnips was thinned.
Crops such as carrots, beets, turnips, and radishes occasionally need to be thinned in order to size up. The most recent succession of turnips was seeded fairly heavily therefore we simply went through each row pulling out turnips that were crowding each other out. Hopefully these will size up quickly and we can include them in an upcoming share.
Tuesday’s crew began the day by picking Bermuda grass out of the area that was planted in sweet potatoes later in the week. The Bermuda grass will be a constant battle in this area, but hopefully we’ll see less of a problem with the amount that was removed before planting. The 3rd succession of tomatoes also received mulch in the pathways, which brings us pretty much up to date with mulching. A small amount of seeding was also accomplished on Tuesday.
Direct seeding included:
Friday’s morning crew completed an awesome CSA and market harvest. The high point of harvest for me personally was finally harvesting the very first thing planted back in the spring – green cabbage! In addition to harvesting, we began weeding the peppers, continuing to trellis the tomatoes, and completed trellising the pole beans.
Lastly, with Friday afternoon slowly slipping away and our minds quickly switching into weekend mode, the sweet potato slips arrived, and into the ground they went. Unlike regular potatoes which are grown from a seed potato, sweet potatoes are grown from slips, which are shoots grown from mature sweet potatoes. Slips can be grown on a small scale at home, but we ordered ours in quantity from Kansas State.
Sweet potato planting included:
Saturday morning was another harvest shift for the morning crew, while Stephanie Theiss, Jesus, and I spent the morning selling at the Tower Grove Market. I have to take a moment to give props to Stephanie and Jesus who are both farmers’ market naturals! I barely had to lift a finger as we blew this year’s current sales record out of the water. It seems as though the farm crew also had a great morning of harvesting followed by completing the pepper and eggplant weeding.
Looking at the week ahead, we’ll be harvesting some new crops (I ate a few fresh green beans at the farm yesterday!), seeding a few crops, keeping up with the continued growth of both plants and weeds, and hopefully taking a stab at successfully growing lettuce further into the summer with another one of Josh’s innovative shade structure ideas.
See you all this week,
Stephanie and Josh