CSA Pick Up July 21

Well the heat is on. It is suppose to be another scorcher tomorrow. I am getting up early to harvest the lettuce and Chard and hope to have them in the refrigerator before they wilt. There are lots of summer squash. The plants are at least 3-4' tall. They are huge. They are giving me at least 20 + squash a day. It is so exciting to pick them early in the morning and hearing and seeing the honey bees busy gathering pollen from the flowers. I fear that 2 of my plants have Squash Vine Borer. Mary the UConn Extension entomologist told me to look for an entrance hole near the soil. So I have some homework to do. If it is the Squash Vine Borer then I need to pull the plants before the eggs hatch and the larvae exit back into the soil. I can still plant more summer squash so I can keep it going.

The peppers are starting to form too. There will be some Hot Wax Peppers this week and I hope some frying peppers next week. The Tomatoes are hanging on too. So pretty soon we will have fresh garden tomatoes.

I have cleared and weeded where the peas were and so the next step is to add some compost and plant more pole beans and cucumbers. I will to that on Friday along with planting more Chard and Kale.

Lots of veggies taking shape. It is hard for me to wait. The potatoes are in flower as well as the watermelon. This is the first year for me to grow watermelon so I hope it turns out well.

See you tomorrow.

CSA Pick Up July 14

It is the 5th pick up of the season. I am trying a PYO Pick-your-own for the first time. Raspberries and Blueberries are ripe. If you want some fruit plan to have a little time to pick berries. I will supply the berry container. If it doesn't work for you to pick tomorrow night talk with me so we can set up another time for you to stop by the farm and pick some fruit.

This is the last week for peas. Lucky for you they ripened quickly so I had to pick them and shell them. So I have been busy shelling peas. The eight foot pea vines have been cut down and I am now preparing the beds for pole beans and cucumbers to grow. I have also rescued the Chard, Celery, Celeriac, and Leeks from the fast growing weeds.

The Garlic has been harvested and is now hanging in the Sugar Shack curing. In about 3- 4 weeks depending on the weather you will find some garlic in your share.

Looking forward to seeing you at pick up.

Hope you all had a Happy 4th of July. We are now into the throws of summer. Hot afternoons that tend to trigger a thunderstorm or 2. The potatoes are really happy in their potato boxes. I am busy filling in the boxes with more compost and Bruce is cutting the bottoms off the apple boxes so I can add the second box on top of the first. I know this sounds confusing so when you come for your pick up plan to take a stroll and see what they look like. It is exciting to watch them grow. I feel like by the time I get through the row adding compost the first boxes need more.

The Eggplant has started to bloom, the Peppers have small flowers on them and the Summer Squash is covered with baby squash that are maturing in one day so I am picking them just about every morning.

CSA Pick up June 30

This is the third week of pick up for the CSA. Because of all the rain and cool weather the plants are growing but very slowly except for the peas. They are in heaven. The Squash should have been ready this week but unfortunately, they are still small and so we have to wait another week. The green beans are up but haven't started to flower yet so we need to keep waiting.
The tomatoes are growing and so far do not have Septoria Leaf Blight. Because of all the rain it is showing up as a problem to farmers in Connecticut and could wipe out the tomato crop. I am optimistic about our tomatoes because of the weekly Nutrient Density Soil Drenches I am applying and I am trellising the tomatoes to keep them up off the ground. Planting through black plastic also helps stop the splash up of bacteria on to the lower leaves. The next few days are suppose to be sunny which is WONDERFUL. The plants want the SUN!!!!
Looking forward to seeing you tomorrow.

CSA Pick Up

Harvesting through the rain drops today and tomorrow, your pick up order will be ready for you. Because of all the warm weather and rain things are really growing. The veggies listed in red in the card on the left are what will be in your share this week. Not sure if the beets will be beets or just beet greens. I have been talking with UConn extension about the beets because a lot of the beets are long and slim and not round balls. There seems to be some concern that it is either the wet damp erratic cool weather or else a possible seed mix up with the supplier. The supplier would never admit to a seed mix up and because part of the beets are round the problem is probably the weather conditions. Any way I won't know till tomorrow morning if the beets will be just greens or actually have little round beets attached to them. You will find the second recipe Garlic Scape Carbonara is under the 2011 CSA recipe folder. Looking forward to seeing you tomorrow.

Recipes are here!!!

The recipes are here!! I have added all of last year's 20 recipes that we passed out at each week pickup. To locate the recipe page place the mouse arrow up at the Home tab under the heading and slowly move to the right. A new tab should pop up saying " 2010 Fire Ring Farm Recipes". This will give you some more ideas for how to use, and prepare the weekly vegetables that you pick up from the farm.

These are all delicious and some of them address special diets like Vegetarian, Vegan, Lactose intolerant, and Gluten free. As the season progresses I will be adding a new recipe each week for you to enjoy.

As I told a lot of you I also recommend the book "From Asparagus to Zucchini" http://www.amazon.com/Asparagus-Zucchini-Cooking-Farm-Fresh-Seasonal/dp/0972121781/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1307995218&sr=1-1 .

I am looking forward to a wonderful 2011 season.

Rocks

Rocks!! In Connecticut we have rocks and rocks and more rocks. This is one of the rocks Bruce uncovered (yes they hide down deep in the soil undercover) when he was clearing the South garden area so we could plant. First we decided to dig a deep hole and bury it. You know the saying "Out of site, Out of mind." Well it worked for about 3 hours and then Bruce uncovered a second rock in the field. Both of these rocks were to big for out Kubota Tractor so we went to our neighbor Art! One needs a neighbor like Art if you are going to run a farm. (We had a neighbor in Ohio - Dave that we needed when I was running my landscape business) Back on point, Art has access to a BIG machine and was able to uncover Rock #1 and remove both Rock 1 and 2 from the garden. There are still lots of baby rocks in the garden but now we have the beds formed, amended and almost all planted. I will show pictures on the next blog writing. I am still learning how to add more than one picture to my blog entry.

So the question for the day is which is better Ohio Clay Soil or Connecticut Big Rocks with Sandy Loam Soil. Both need amending and both can drive a person crazy!!