4th week of July 2010

Fall Greens This is the week to attack some neglected weedy areas and prepare beds for fall planting. We're taking out pea trellises, pulling out greens that went to seed and other spent crops. I'm planting bok choy, Chinese cabbage, daikon radishes, kohlrabi, Swiss chard, spinach and other greens for fall in the new beds. I also started eight flats of cold frame plants, some for my use and some to have available for sale for the classes I'll be doing later in August. It's always a challenge to keep little plants alive and watered in the summer heat so I've started the flats in an area that only gets morning sun. Here you can barely see the Bright Lights Swiss Chard seedlings lifting their tiny heads. My summer plantings are intentionally slimmer this year since produce is so prolific in our area during late summer so I'm trying to grow things in a season with greater demand. With the heat, my lettuce crop bolted and the next planting is struggling to take off. So my veggie customers need to live without salad for a few weeks but I am planning for abundant fall salad again. Plus I am getting more requests for greens for juicing and I hope to have more of those available through the fall months.

Colorful Tomatoes The tomato selection is beginning to become more colorful as some of the heirlooms ripen. I now have Cherokee Purples, Green Zebras, Rose and my husband's favorite orange Persimmons to add to the mix. I also like making mixes of colorful cherry tomatoes with orange Sungolds, Ladybugs, Black Cherries, Yellow Pear and Green Grapes. The only dilemna is that the recent rains caused many of the tomatoes to split so the blemished tomatoes are ending up in a pot for sauce. One of my favorite dishes to take to gatherings this time of year is a plate of colorful tomato slices with basil, shallots and olive oil. But many of the tomatoes are just popped into mouths plain, whether it is our children hanging out at the cherry tomato plant or our customers taste testing their goodies as they drive away.

Husking Sweet Corn Over the weekend we hosted my family for our annual Gerber weekend on the farm. Since my birthday fell during that time, the whole group partook in my traditional sweet corn meal. I bought Incredible corn from an Amish friend that was picked less than an hour before it went into the pot. Here we put the crew of a dozen cousins to work husking the ears. It was so tender and delicious, truly worthy of a birthday feast! We also bought a pile of melons from the same produce stand since mine are not quite ready and on the hot afternoons, they were a true thirst quencher.