A sad sight!

When we went to pick the broccoli last week after the rains, there was already a lot of spoilage – probably more than half of the heads. The ones that were still good, we picked, but they went bad quickly too.

The broccoli plants were big, lush & thick. Moisture was trapped in the foliage and the heads couldn’t dry out – so they rotted. The high heat & humidity only made things worse.

All the broccoli went to the compost pile.

Fortunately all CSA members received broccoli in their box once. And we had lots to sell at market one day as well.

Still it was a big disappointment and loss.

If we were to keep a tally, the rain was harmful to the broccoli, early cabbage, and at least one planting of kohlrabi. Some lettuce too. But it was beneficial to just about everything else.

The effect of the rain was especially evident on the crops we direct seed into the fields – sunflowers and beans. These usually take around 7 days to germinate. Earlier in the season when it was drier, and the temperatures cooler, it was 10-12 days before they poked through the soil. But during the wet & hot week the sunflowers (below) were up in 4 days and beans in 5. What a difference rain makes!

Coming soon …

What’s in the box?

Mini-cabbage, kale bunches, mini-romaine lettuce, zucchini, kohlrabi, green onions, beets.

• We like to grow smaller cabbages rather than those huge heads. And this year they are even smaller! The rains were starting to crack the cabbage heads so we picked them small rather than lose them all.
• Earlier we had bags of baby kale and there is baby kale in our spicy salad mix. But this week it’s full size kale. Eat it for the great taste and eat it because it is healthy! We are growing black kale (pictured below left) – also known as dinosaur kale – as well as curly kale.

• Romaine lettuce is another vegetable where we prefer the smaller varieties. It is more tender, mild & delicious than the larger kinds. We started picking a new bed on Friday for market on Saturday. It was perfect! However lettuce does not like the hot temperatures & humidity so by today it was beginning to stretch & bolt. The good news is that we grew lots so there still should be enough for everyone. However, similar to the cabbage we will pick it even smaller rather than allowing it to size up more and risk losing it.

• Zucchini is coming on strong! Green, yellow, striped – they all taste similar and can be used the same. We also grow the scalloped, round patty pan varieties. These taste the same but are slightly firmer in texture. Use them like any other zucchini.
• Kohlrabi, green onions & beets complete the box this week.

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Around the farm this week …

We moved our occultation tarp this week (For an explanation of occultation see https://thiessenfarms.com/2017/04/12/occultation). That gave us a beautiful, weed-free patch of ground, which we promptly filled with transplants.

CSA week 6 ready to go.

Rabbits all over the farm these days!