Awaiting Summer's Bounty
Mid-June in our Maine garden is a blend of immediate gratification and exciting anticipation! While we're still enjoying the bounty of traditional early-season crops, the promise of a full summer harvest is clearly in sight.
Current Harvests & Thriving Staples
Our greens and lettuces are absolutely beautiful, providing a steady supply for fresh salads. We've also begun harvesting our early-planted beets, Mokum carrots, and turnips, and the radishes continue to be prolific. We're happily picking a variety of herbs and cutting vibrant perennial flowers for bouquets, adding spice and color to our selections.
Peas & Beans: Progress and Perseverance
Our snap pea plants are already adorned with delicate flowers, a hopeful sign of sweet pods to come. The shell pea plants are looking robust at about eighteen inches tall, on track for an early July harvest. Getting our green beans started proved a bit more challenging this cool spring. It took three plantings for successful germination, and our more finicky filet beans were likely planted a tad too early for the cool soil temperatures. But persistence paid off, and they're now happily sprouted!
Robust Brassicas & Root Vegetables
The crucifer plants across the board are thriving. Our Napa cabbages are filling in beautifully, and while the broccoli, cauliflower, and other cabbage varieties are slower to form heads, their strong, healthy stalks and leaves are a testament to their vigor. The Bolero carrots are also looking excellent, and our second and third plantings of beets are growing well, though we did have to cover them recently after a porcupine decided to sample their tender young leaves! Our potato plants are successfully hilled, mulched, and netted, so now we simply wait and hope for a bountiful yield. And let's not forget the celery! It's growing well, and we're planning an early harvest of some stalks to encourage new, even more tender growth.
Tomatoes & Eggplants: Battling the Elements
Our eggplant plants have had a bit of a tough start in a wetter section of the garden, but these recent warm, sunny days are really helping them catch up. The cherry tomato plants are looking fantastic, having already established healthy trusses of fruit that should ripen early for us. Our other tomato varieties are also setting fruit nicely, promising a delicious summer.
A Garden Full of Blooms
Finally, our annual flower beds are established and flourishing. We have a vibrant array of zinnias, cosmos, statice, sunflowers, dahlias, asters, gomphrena, celosia, and veronica all growing well, ensuring a season full of color and cheer.
Naturally, the success of all our crops is ultimately weather-dependent, but as of today, everything looks incredibly promising!
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Purchasing Local Grown Food
One key benefit of purchasing local food is the opportunity to acquire food items with superior quality characteristics. This often translates to enhanced freshness, flavor, and ripeness, along with an extended shelf life. Additionally, locally sourced produce may offer enhanced nutritional density.
At our farm, we focus on enriching our soil with vital natural nutrients such as calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, zinc, and other trace minerals. This commitment to soil health directly contributes to healthier plants and improved crop harvests, reinforcing our belief that healthy soil leads to healthy food.
We're interested in learning about your personal values when it comes to food.
Is it important for you to know where your food comes from?
Is price a primary factor in your purchasing decisions?
How important are convenience and easy access when you're buying food?
Are you sourcing local grown food elsewhere?
Your feedback helps us understand how we can better serve you. Please email us at verrill@gmail.com |
