Today's Share # 13 - August 9, 2012

More PICTURES

Half Share: 

2 ears of corn
2.5 oz. basil
3/4 lb. chard
4 oz. New Zealand spinach
10 oz. onions
3 oz. garlic
1 1/2 lb. tomatoes
15 oz. eggplant
5 oz. peppers
3 1/2 oz. kale micro greens
8 oz. beans
a bit of parsley

(except one person got 9 oz. tomatillos instead of eggplant)

Full Share:

twice as much on all except spinach and beans
plus 1 1/2 oz. ground cherries and 3X the amount of chard

Mini Shares:
2 items plus garlic for everyone

FARM WEEK # 13 - August 9, 2012 - MINI SHARE # 10

August 6, 2012

Good morning, friends and farm members,

FARM NEWS
The weeks seem to be flying by at the moment.  Busy with the garden and friends.  Robin and I had a major weed-a-thon last weekend and made great and visible progress.  There's a clean slate for some fall planting and I am eager to do that this week, thinking about daikon radishes, arugula, and spinach in the cool weather.

BUT for now, it's summer!  We had our first fresh picked and grilled sweet corn on Saturday and it was wonderful.  I'll be putting some in the big shares this week and should have enough for 2 of the mini shares. Yay!  The shares will include the makings of ratatouille or salsa, if you are so inclined.

I transplanted about 75 more feet of kale just before the rain.  The beans are plumping up.  The tomatoes look good.  I decided to give the carrots a rest this week so they can get bigger.  There are peppers and eggplant this week but blossoms and fruit set are a bit slow at the moment.  According to my research, that is sometimes a problem during extremely high heat.  Here's hoping that they can set more fruit now that it is a bit cooler and before the nights get below 60 degrees.  Tricky.  There are some peppers and eggplant in the hoophouse so they won't suffer from the cooler nighttime temperatures.  I hope that what this all means is that there will be peppers, and lots of them!

The rain has been great but with only a shallow spring for a water supply, I continue to be very careful with my water use.  Mostly it is a matter of paying attention to supply so I don't run out at any given time but this is the earliest in the season that I have ever had to think this carefully about timing my water use.  I hope it rains a whole bunch more over the next couple of months.  We all need it.

And that is just a prelude to saying, thanks for doing such a good job returning clean, dry containers.  It saves me time and water.  (Right side out bags are better than inside out so I don't need to wonder about what the inside of the bag has been touching.  Thanks.)

POULTRY
We got two more Moscovy ducks on Sunday from Judy Sopenski of Not Your Ordinary Farm in Guilford. Thanks, Judy!  Now we have 3 female Moscovys instead of only one.  The new birds were accepted almost immediately by the other ducks.  The older birds were curious and the other Moscovys spent some time sniffing them, at least it looked like sniffing, and now everyone is getting along fine.  That was nice.  If it were chickens they would be working out their pecking order for days.  It may be that because the new birds were females, they were not seen as a threat by the other ducks.  I don't know but I am glad it was easy.  Oh yes, and Rob extended the duck yard on Friday.  It looks great.

On the down side, the ducks are figuring out ways to get out of their pen!  So that's the next little poultry puzzle. If you are driving in, please look out for roving ducks.

Judy sells her home raised duck, chicken, lamb and pork at her home and at various locations including the Franklin Farm store in Guilford and the Franklin County Farmer's Cooperative in Greenfield.

I collected 2 very tiny eggs lately that might be from the new pullets!  I am waiting to see if that continues but it is exciting.  The Freedom Rangers have been safe in their pen/house so I think the beefed up security worked out.


MINI SHARES

Mini choices week # 10 - Pick two or I will choose for you.  It works well if people tell me their top 3-4 choices. Then I can figure your share based on the harvest.  I am including a couple of things that I know I do not have enough for all.  I'll put the requests in a hat to decide who gets them since not everyone can check their email all the time.

basil
chard
garlic
onions
corn - 2 minis only
kale - 1-2 minis only
tomatoes
flowers?

Farmer's Choice (I give you 2 items from the garden, from this list or not, based on general preferences you have shared with me and based on the harvest.  Farmer's Choice may include items not on this list, like NZ spinach or tomatillos, depending on availability.)

PICK UP NOTES
Thursday, 1:00 - 7:00.  I'll send an email when the shares are ready.  I'll be home, probably planting and weeding.  Feel free to come find me to say hello.

THIS WEEK'S SHARE

corn!  I will pick this when you come to get your share so it is as fresh as possible.
basil
chard
New Zealand spinach?  Looking better this week so far.
onions
garlic
tomatoes
eggplant
sweet peppers
kale microgreens?  I am pretty sure that the youngest kale will need thinning.
beans?  At least some...
ground cherries/tomatillos - I continue to dole these out week by week, giving people turns.
flowers?  Not so sure this week...except for marigolds!

No-raccoons-allowed-Laura

Laura Timmerman
910 Greenfield Rd
Leyden, MA 01337
413-773-8325
laurat-at-crocker.com

Lots more farm news and pictures on the farm's facebook page:
(You do not need to be "on facebook" to view this page.  If you use facebook, you can "like" the page for updates and pictures.)
Last week's share:

Last Week's Share - August 2, 2012

Share # 12 Pictures

I took pictures last week, stuck them on facebook at Sweet Morning Farm's facebook page, then forgot to post here.  So many things to do each week and I only get a small portion done.  Always.

Half Share # 12

Full Share # 12

Sample Mini Week 12 (Share # 9)

My browser closed while trying to do this quick catch up.  So 5 minutes turned into 25.  Now it's time to move on to feeding the chickens, finishing up today's shares, including posting!, (# 13) and then backflushing the water system and hoping that the flow from the spring returns.  Do a rain dance and say a prayer for water, okay?