I want to start by giving you our full 2024 tomato story. On a normal year, tomatoes are planted in late May. If the season goes well and we get a little rain, not too much, and the tomato plants will grow well. Once the plants get so large that they need support, we trellis them every week, once a week for about 5-6 weeks depending on the varieties. We’re usually picking tomatoes by mid August.
This year we were picking tomatoes by mid August, but just the first few samplings of them. Most years at this time we are giving 5-8 lb bags of tomatoes week after week. The reason our tomatoes were set back so far this year is because we had so much rain this Spring which caused our tomato plants to get blighted and diseased. We had to prune our tomato plants back to skinny little sticks with a few leaves sticking out the tops which also included pruning off some of the first flower sets. This really set our tomato production back a couple weeks but may have been the saving grace for out tomatoes after all.
Today the plants are finally starting to give literal truckloads of tomatoes. We’re pleased that the rains quit coming so frequently and the plants were able to grow out of their set back. We are now picking tomato plants with plenty of time for harvest. They’re going to hit their peak production a little later in the season this year than they have in previous years. Hopefully we will still be able to give those 5-8 lbs bags week after week yet this year!
We find the later harvest to be nice after all. The tomatoes are finally starting to produce heavily just as the sweet corn and melons go out of season which will help us keep those CSA boxes filled to the top with fresh, juicy, summertime fruits.
This week we also harvested all of our winter squash except for the butternuts. We’re excited to start sharing the hard winter squash with you in the coming weeks as we close in on the remaining 6 weeks of our CSA deliveries. For anyone who looses track, this is week 14 out of 20 consecutive weeks. It is also an EVEN week.
The peppers are doing really well this year. The beautiful color and variety coming out of the pepper patch always amazes me every year. We should be able to continue harvesting peppers all the way up to first frost which is always an unknown date. It could be as early as the third week of September and some years it didn’t come until the middle of October. There’s no way to tell! For now we are absolutely loving the peppers and thrilled to share them with you!
The fall brassica field is also doing very well. We should be able to share some beautiful broccoli, cauliflower, kohlrabi, rutabaga and fall radish with you as well in the last 6 weeks. The field is looking free of disease at this point, clean of weeds, the plants all look healthy and large and exactly as they should. Our fall spinach plantings failed from the high heat we just had. They were doing great, germinated well and then were fried after the heat. We just re-planted them this weekend and we’re hoping they have time to come up and still make a good stand before it gets too cold.
The weather this time of year is my absolute favorite. The warm, sunny days and the cool mornings and evenings are a delight. How I love fall more than any other season!
Another poem for you because I love poems!
Nothing Gold Can Stay
Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.
— Robert Frost
Sweet Corn- Three ears per member. We thought it tasted a little past it’s prime, but that type of sweet corn makes good Elotes! Or Mexican Street Corn
Carrots– One pound of carrots per member.
Green Beans- 1 pound of beans per member this week.
Peppers- 4 sweet peppers per member this week. Peppers also prefer 50 degree storage.
Onion- One white onion per member.
Sun Gold Cherry Tomatoes/Mini Sweet- .58 pound bags with sun gold cherry tomatoes and one mini sweet pepper. We’re giving cherry tomatoes in paper bags again this year to reduce our plastic usage. I love the paper bags, but I realize they’re not a perfect solution. It’s working for now!
Tomatoes- 3 lbs of tomatoes per member this week. A reminder that we pick any tomato with a ‘blush’. Ths means we pick any tomato showing any signs of color at all because they ripen so fast once they begin to turn colors. We recommend putting them out on your counter to ripen until they have reached the desired ripeness. Do not refrigerate your tomatoes unless the are getting over-ripe and you need to buy yourself some time. We also recommend removing them from the plastic bag. Condensation can build up in the plastic bag and cause the tomatoes to go bad. Herilooms, romas, slicers, oh my! It’s finally tomato season!
Jalapeno Pepper- Either a red or green jalapeno tucked in your tomato bag. They’re hot!
Napa Cabbage- One nice head of Napa cabbage. Also called chinese cabbage. Stores best in a plastic bag in the fridge. Excellent for salads.
Collard Greens- To keep you stocked in your greens!
Next Week’s Best Guess– Potatoes, Napa Cabbage, Tomatoes, Peppers, Green Beans, Carrots, Onion, Brussels Sprouts Tops, Eggplants, Lettuce?, Winter Squash?
Southern Collard Greens with Bacon
Easy Asian Style Napa Cabbage with Sesame, Ginger, and Garlic
