The heat is on folks! We survived a week’s worth of hot and muggy weather reaching up in the 90’s. The heat-loving plants like the peppers, tomatoes, eggplant, sweet corn and melons are thriving in the heat and humidity. If you were still enough, you could almost hear the plants growing last week on Wednesday and Thursday. The plants just love this heat.What a crew for Monday morning harvest! Wow, great job you guys!
It looks like we have a bit of reprieve coming up this next week with highs only in the low 80’s. We began hearing the cicadas this last week for the first time, then the full moon posing as the sun in the night’s sky, and then the coyotes and the lightening bugs keeping the evening hours alive. The summer is like one long party that I just can’t seem to stay up for.
The heat of the summer has us in a little mini drought. A stubborn 4/10th of an inch of rain fell on the farm on Monday night after 3 days of anticipation and teasing and threatening not to fall at all. Plenty of wind and lightening and thunder for a measley 4/10th of precipitation. I know that I sound a bit ungrateful, but truly I am grateful for each drop. I am also thankful for Adam’s expertise in irrigation.
Farmer Adam is in full irrigation mode. Everything on the farm that we have laid irrigation lines for when we planted it, has been watered so far. Many of the vegetable plants need to have water when they are flowering and beginning to set fruit so that they do not drop their blossoms. All of our melons, squash, cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, and onions are all receiving routing watering from Adam, our rainman.
Still a warm week ahead of us to help those melons ripen and those tomatoes to swell. We’re hoping for a few more chances of rain in the forecast to soften the ground for our carrots and garlic harvest coming up this week. I think a nice inch or two of rain would do wonders just for Adam’s spirit alone. I think Adam needs it to rain about as much as the carrots and lettuce do. Fingers crossed!
Green Cabbage- Pretty large heads of green cabbage this week! The leaves were still looking so great with very minimal bug damage.
Kohlrabi- We’re down to our final kohlrabi giving this week. You may have received a purple or white kohlrabi.
Green Onions- Also our final green onion giving this Spring. After this week we’ll have fresh, large, white oinons to start giving.
Red Curly Kale- We tried to give everyone curly red kale this week, but we made our last 10 or so bunches of green curly kale instead.
Eggplant- We harvested three different kinds of eggplant this week. Some were Asian eggplants that are long and thin, some were the light purple colored eggplants, and some were the standard dark black eggplants. They varied in size quite a bit, but we’ll be offering eggplants for quite a white yet, you’ll likely get one of each at some point. Eggplants do not love refrigeration and may turn soft in a refrigerator. They prefer 50 degree storage areas, or a cool place in your kitchen on the countertop.
Sweet Basil- Of all the vegetables we grown, Basil really does not love refrigeration. It will turn black if refrigerated. We like to stand our basil bunch up in a vase of water like you would do with fresh cut flowers. Fresh basil leaves are highly perishable, so use them up quick. You could make pesto or dehydrate them if you got a large bunch and don’t know what to do with it all.
Cauliflower or Broccoli- Most folks received cauliflower this week. We keep the wrappers on the outside of the heads to protect the heads from bruising.
Celery- Yes, this is local celery. Local celery looks and tastes much different from Califlornia celery. Local celery is darker green in color and has a stronger celery flavor. This celery is not quite as succulent as we like to see, but we started to see that some of the outer leaves were starting to die back a little earlier that we hoped, so we started to harvest it right away. We will be able to give celery every week for the next 3 or 4 weeks consecutively. Use up your celery! The greens are also great for cooking, adding flavor to a soup or dehydrating and using like parsley to flavor dishes. We like to use our celery greens in cooking. 
I spy a watermelon!
Cucumbers- Cucumbers slowed down a touch from the cooler weather this week. We’ve got plenty more cucumbers on their way. Cucumbers also love 50 degrees storage and will turn a little rubbery in too cold of storage.
Zucchini, Summer Squash or Patty Pans- More squash! Squash production also slowed down from the cooler nights this week, but plenty more squash to come! Squash also prefers 50 degree storage area.
