Greetings from The Neighborhood Farm!
Tomatoes are at the top of our to-do list this week. Some cherries
are beginning to ripen, but all of them are flowering and setting
fruit. They are also growing to record heights. At one of our
sites the tomatoes have passed the 7 foot mark. Our 5 foot tomato
stakes are no longer sufficient to hold them back. This weekend's
major project is to contain them. The rows have grown together
(despite a lot of string holding them back) and have closed over the
path between rows. We now have a tomato tunnel that can only be
traversed on hands and knees. Picking the tomatoes is difficult
under these circumstances. We're hoping some framing lumber and a
large trellising net will be enough to force them back so that we
can walk down the path. If they want to grow together over our
heads, that's OK.
Now that we are past the summer solstice, the days are getting
shorter again. Some crops, like onions, are day length sensitive.
Once the days get shorter, this signals onions to stop producing
vegetative, leafy growth and to focus on developing the bulb.
Suddenly, the onions begin tipping over and lying on the ground.
The leaves begin browning and the neck begins drying. Ultimately we
pull the onions from the ground and hang them to dry until all the
leaves can be removed and we have a traditional, cured onions. Our
onions are in the beginning of the drying stages now. They don't
look pretty like spring onions anymore, and they don't look like
"regular" onions either. They are in that awkward adolescent stage
with limp, browning tops, and only thin paper skins around the
bulbs. They are perfectly good to eat at this stage, although they
won't necessarily keep as long as a fully cured onion. This week
we'll be taking pre-orders for these half cured onions.
The lack of rain has slowed down the regrowth rate on our salad
greens. We use a cut and come again method for our salad greens.
We remove the largest leaves and let the plant regrow new leaves to
harvest the next week. However, heat and a lack of rain aren't the
best conditions for salad greens, so we won't be offering salad mix
this week.
We will offer blueberries again however! They were a huge hit, so
we'll be taking pre-orders. Consider freezing some to use out of
season - they are truly wonderful. If you are freezing blueberries,
don't wash them first. Just put them in a Ziploc bag and freeze
them so they don't turn into a solid block of blueberries and ice.
When you remove them from the freezer, rinse them in cold water. If
you're baking muffins or bread with them, mix them into your batter
while they are still frozen. This way they won't bleed into the
batter, turning it blue. They'll thaw when baked, although you may
have to increase your baking time slightly.
Next - 7/25/08