Goodbye August

Writing on the final day of August is somewhat bittersweet. With a couple more ninety degree days this week we're definitely ready for cooler temps. At the same time the summer heat brings on tomatoes, beans, and other crops that we like to grow. Fields around the farm reflect both the end and the height of our season.


This was where we had a number of our potatoes. All of the potatoes are out of the field and in deep storage in the cooler. To store potatoes for an extended length of time you need to let them fully dry off after harvest. Then box them up without washing them. Then they need to be stored in a dark, humid cooler that stays above 40 degrees. So, when we need potatoes for the CSA or for market we remove boxes from the cooler and wash and bag the potatoes. At least it is easier than digging them up each time we need potatoes!

Other crops, such as beans are actively producing now and we've got to be out there in the field every couple of days harvesting them. Picking beans is a unique skill because it has to be done as quickly as possible; while, at the same time, it needs to be done thoroughly so that mature beans are not left on the plants. We've got another planting of beans that should mature in a couple of weeks, but the bugs have really gone to town on them and we're just crossing our fingers that we'll still get something out of the planting.



Evan is hoping that we get a fall crop of raspberries. So far he is by himself pretty much keeping up with what the plants produce! In fact, though he likes to pick tomatoes and beans, raspberries are the only crop that he actually likes to eat directly from the plants.

Looking ahead

Growing produce throughout the summer and fall requires a good bit of planning. We have to have crops that are maturing throughout the end of August and through September since the tomatoes will only last so long (I'm sorry to say...). So we've got a few pictures of crops that are just beginning to come into production. First off we've got a planting of swiss chard that we are just beginning to harvest off of.


We like to do multiple plantings of chard since the first leaves that are harvested are the most tasty and best looking. We've also got some sweet corn that will hopefully be ready in a couple of weeks.


Almost all of the signs for local sweet corn have come down (it has been so dry here that unless you are irrigating your corn as we are it is pretty much impossible to have sweet corn at this time), but we should have some soon. Elsewhere these yellow wax beans are just coming on.


We had some of these in a pasta salad last night and they were really tasty! Of course Evan didn't wait until we got them in the house and cooked to try them.


Emily also takes into account the changing seasons when planning her flowers. These amaranth are much more popular after there have been a couple of cool nights to get people thinking about fall colors.


At the same time sunflowers are always popular and we especially like these fuzzy looking sunflowers which we've grown for the first time this year.


An unexpected benefit of this type of sunflower is the fact that the bugs don't seem to like it as much as they like all the other sunflowers.

Technical glitch...

Hello all,

Our regularly scheduled posting has been delayed for a day or so due to a minor technical problem. We'll have new pictures up shortly. Thanks!

Bugs

August is bug season on the farm. We see bugs everywhere, we feel them biting and nibbling on us while we work and we hear the cicadas constantly. When you spend as many hours outdoors as we do you get used to bugs everywhere. We are happy to see many of our bugs because they help keep our pest bug population in check. Some bugs though we are happy to see simply because of their beauty. Such is the case with these butterflies that love the flower field!


On the other hand when we find tomatoes that look like this we know that tomato hornworms have arrived.


These guys demolish tomato plants. Fortunately a parasitic wasp also likes the hornworms. In fact it uses the hornworm to feed its larvae. Here is a tomato hornworm with parasitic wasp larvae on its back.


It may seem gross but I'd much rather see this than to have to spend my time spraying our organic control for the tomato hornworms.

As far as our crops are concerned we've got lots of beans coming into production. We've got fresh green beans in addition to these edible soybeans (also known as edamame). They have a very loyal following among some of our customers, but we had to scale back our planting a bit this year because we ended up with more edamame than we knew what to do with last year!


Of course everyone knows how to enjoy these wonderful French fillet beans. Young and tender they only need to be cooked for a couple of minutes. We are at the end of our first planting of these beans, but we have another planting that will mature later in September.


Finally come the middle of August we've got whole fields that need to be cleaned up. This is where we have grown many of our crops over the past couple of months. They have all been mowed and tomorrow this field should be tilled and prepared for its fall cover crop of oats and tillage radish.

Tomatoes!

We had our first good size tomato harvest this week. Back in May/June when we were waiting, impatiently, for our field to dry out and the tomatoes were growing taller and taller in their little cells there were moments that I thought we might not get to harvest tomatoes this year! We like to grow a number of heirloom varieties. These are tomato varieties that have been saved and passed down from year to year, oftentimes for their individual characteristics, as opposed to bred and hybridized selectively by researchers or seed companies. So heirloom tomato plants produce tomatoes that look and taste nothing like grocery store tomatoes. On the other hand they are more susceptible to variations in weather and disease pressure. This year our heirlooms are splitting like crazy. This is usually the result of uneven watering that has been exacerbated by the fact that the weather has been consistently hot and humid. Enough talk about tomatoes, now let's meet some of our heirlooms!



These three are our small tomatoes. From left to right we've got garden peach, green zebra and black trifele. Garden peach is juicy and sweet with just a little fuzz (hence its name) on the outside. Green zebra has a strong flavor that lends itself well to salads, or to being sliced and added to a grilled cheese sandwich. Finally black trifele is a new tomato for us this year, and like other dark tomatoes it has a rich, sweet flavor.



These light-colored, large heirlooms are called (again from left to right) great white, goldie, and copia. Great white is a new tomato that we tried this year because the yellow tomato that we usually grow (Lillian's yellow) was unavailable this year. These are mild and juicy tomatoes that are ripe when the bottom just begins to blush. Goldie is turning out to be one of our favorite heirlooms because it hardly cracks! This meaty tomato also has a great taste and texture that make it ideal for sandwiches or burgers. Finally, copia is one of our mottled tomatoes that is a stunning mix of yellow and red. We usually grow a variety called striped german, but didn't get any planted this year due to a couple of issues with potting mix and the weather. Copia is a similar tomato to striped german and is also great for sandwiches.



Some heirlooms look pretty close in terms of color to your "regular" red tomatoes. These are brandywine and cherokee purple (the two tomatoes in the top row are brandywines and the bottom row are cherokee purples). The tomatoes on the left are the less ripe version of each variety of tomato. Both of these tomatoes are requested by name each year at our market stand. Brandywines are sweet and juicy with a very thin skin that makes them great for eating on salads or simply sliced on a plate with a little bit of salt. Cherokee purples are dark, meaty and flavorful. Even in a good year they crack all over so it is not surprising that many of ours are cracked again this year.



Finally, we've got two different types of hybrid tomatoes. The dark red tomatoes (top row) are big beefs which are consistent, hold up well and taste great. The lighter pink tomatoes are, appropriately, pink beauties. They are just a bit juicier than big beef with a slightly thinner skin. We hope that you will enjoy all of these tomato varieties this season!

How to enjoy an onion

We always try to get Evan to eat new vegetables as they come into season. This week we pulled our onion crop so he set about to learn how to eat an onion. Apparently they are best when shaken...


Then enjoyed raw and muddy.


After his onion snack Evan could help me unload a tiller that we bought. It became evident this spring that we needed a bigger, heavier tiller to prepare the ground more quickly between rains. So we finally received the tiller that was ordered back in June. I knew that the semi wouldn't make it into our driveway so I backed our pickup truck up to the semi and slid the 700 pound tiller down a homemade ramp into the pickup bed. All went well and after a couple of days of set-up and adjustments I was working some ground this morning.



By the afternoon we had flowers planted in the ground that I had just worked! Apparently we just can't plant enough flowers. This picture was snapped at 10AM at our Saturday Market.










This picture was taken at 11AM on the same Saturday. Each bouquet needs to be wrapped after being sold so Emily was busy during that hour.











Finally here's a picture that you won't often see in Ohio. Corn on driptape! Since we didn't get our corn planted until mid-July we need to be able to help it through the hot and dry August days.