Here at the farm, we're doing a happy dance for the rain! It's not just making our plants giggle with growth, it's also giving this farmer a little break from watering duty. Woohoo!
This week, we've been busy tucking our garden beds into cozy blankets of leaves and lovely compost. We're still chipping away at mulching a few more footpaths, but we're getting there, one wood chip at a time!
On Friday, we had a grand planting party, getting all our "straggler" plants (the ones living in pots for a little too long) into the ground, along with our sweet fall cabbage seedlings.
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Now for the juicy harvest news! Our strawberries are playing a little hard to get this week. We're not quite sure if they'll be ready for Thursday, but we'll list them for pre-orders and let you know if they do not ripen and mature enough. The rain should help them plump up, but we've had a furry little berry bandit – a raccoon who thought our patch was his personal snack bar! We've since put up some netting (along with the bird-deterring row covers). On our last inspection, it looked like he got a bit tangled trying to enter the bed, even messing up some snap peas in the process. We're hoping that was a good enough "uh-oh" to keep him away from our precious berries!
But fear not, there are plenty of other goodies! Get ready for crunchy snap peas, crisp celery stalks, delightful Napa cabbage, sweet Mokum and Bolero carrots, vibrant beet greens, zesty garlic scapes, yummy kale, hearty collards, and the Swiss chard that everyone's raving about! One customer even said it was "like BUTTER!!"
We're also seeing adorable little zucchini, summer squash, and cucumbers peeking out from their plants, along with blushing cherry tomatoes. And our annual flowers are getting ready to put on a show! Who knew porcupines had a taste for gomphrena plants? They nibbled some of the stems we hoped to use for bouquets, but don't worry, the plants will bounce back, and yes, that bed is now safely netted too!
Blooms & Shrooms
We're predicting a burst of sunshine with our White Lite sunflowers and beautiful lilliums blooming this week! Look for them at the market on Thursday. We're also planning some special holiday-themed bouquets.
Finally, a little update on our mushrooms: sales have been a bit slow at the market, so we might just focus on pre-orders after this week. If you'd like some fungi fantasticness and don't usually order online, just shoot us an email!
verrill@gmail.com
Have a great week and we hope you fill your fourth of July meals with local foods, and boast about it!
