2024 CSA Newsletter #8
It was the last full week for many of the interns last week and it was great to have some more conversations with them about their experiences on the TC3 Farm. It's been a long, hot summer and they are looking forward to a little break before returning for the start of the fall semester. I am so appreciative of their hard work and ability to be constantly flexible. This group will be with me in the fall, but the summer semester is where the nitty gritty happens with the foot on the gas every day. One thing that I love to reflect on is the community that is created among the students and myself. Even though each season has a unique personality, the development of community and comradery is a consistent year in and year out. It is a wonderful thing to watch grow. As these students enter their final semester in the Sustainable Farming and Food Systems program, they have supported each other on a daily basis and created a network for years to come.
In their final week together as a group, the students got a lot of trellising done. All three hoophouses and the greenhouse have crops in them that need extra support. I have written about the tomatoes and cucumbers extensively this season. We have been working with them on a weekly basis for many weeks and added a new task this past week. One reason that we grow our tomatoes (and cucumbers this season) under cover is to help with disease prevention. By protecting them from precipitation, we are able to minimize the spread of some plant diseases because they are staying mostly dry. Another preventative measure that we take is to prune lower leaves to create more airflow. We started that process with the tomatoes. The plants end up looking pretty naked but it really helps with the production of the plants. We will do that with our cucumbers, too. We also added twine to trellis the peppers and eggplants growing in the greenhouse. These plants need support because they are protected from high winds and end up getting big and top-heavy. I also did a lesson about seed saving with the students. Seed-saving is not the easiest thing to do when you grow as many different varieties as we do at the TC3 Farm, but there are some crops that we can do it with. One of those crops is rhubarb. We have a small patch of one variety on the farm. Every year the plants flower and produce seed that we can save to start rhubarb plants, if there is interest. Well, this year there was interest! We let the seeds mostly dry on their stalks and then harvest them and let them dry some more before starting them in a soil mix. That will happen in a couple of weeks. If all goes well and the seedlings survive the winter, we will have rhubarb starts next season.
This week's CSA share is the start of our transition to nightshade central. There will be more bell and frying peppers in the choice. The early hot peppers continue to pop and we are starting to see new varieties begin to ripen. There is another week of green tomatoes and the first eggplant and tomatoes of the season. They are just starting to produce and will be part of an "either/or" choice. There will be plenty more in the coming weeks, especially tomatoes. Also a part of the choice this week are cucumbers, basil, garlic scapes, black currants, kale and rainbow chard. There will also be garlic this week. This variety is called Chesnok Red and has a really nice flavor. The garlic can now be stored out of the fridge. We still have some potted herbs, so I will leave them out also.
Have a great week!
-Farmer Todd