CSA Newsletter #10
The farm season is trucking right along, folks. With the end of the summer semester last week means that it's going to be a quiet out on the farm for a bit. I've still got a couple of student workers coming out to work some hours during the week but there's definitely going to be a shift. Even though there's plenty season left (hopefully), thoughts about the end are starting to creep in. With the fall semester around the corner, I'm starting to think about what absolutely needs to be done, what I'd love to get done and any bonus jobs that would be awesome if they got done. As you all know, as we move into September in Central New York, the weather can begin to be unpredictable. I tend not to pay attention to the weather too much during the summer but I'm going to start peeking at the nighttime lows in the coming weeks to make sure nothing crazy is on the horizon. Even though we have some protection with the hoophouse crops and we can heat the greenhouse, there is only so much we can do and now all the tomatoes are starting to pop. The greenhouse peppers, which are mostly hot, are exploding. The eggplants that didn't get eaten by our friendly rodents are starting to take off and I'll start to monitor the baby ginger in the coming weeks.
As I mentioned last week, we planted some cabbage in the pepper hoophouse. What I failed to mention, is that before planting the cabbage I couldn't make up my mind on what to do, so we threw some cucumber seeds in the ground. Since our field cukes didn't make it, I figured why not. And then I decided on the cabbage. It's a pretty funny sight in that house because there are about 8 pepper plants that didn't get eaten to the ground, transplanted cabbage and now, newly germinated cucumbers. Since we can trellis cucumbers in a similar manner to the tomatoes, we are just going to go for it and see what happens. It also gave me another crazy idea. Because we are already planning to heat the greenhouse later into the season then normal and there are some bare spots in the landscape fabric where eggplant were, we are going to give greenhouse cukes a try, as well. I will keep you posted if this is something that works, a total failure or somewhere in between.
This week's share is marking the shift to tomatoes. All the types that we grow will be a part of the choice. The cherry and heirloom tomatoes will each be their own item and the slicing beefsteak and sauce tomatoes will be together. There are 3 new hot pepper varieties to go along with the cornucopia that we have. There will also be swiss chard, potatoes, basil and the okra/shishito choice.
Have a great week!
-Farmer Todd