Hi all!
Hope you are all doing great, and really for sure hope you are enjoying the veggies. You may recall that there are roughly four week sessions in the main season. This first session is ‘cool season’ crops – produce like carrots that wants a warmer soil to germinate and then wants 6-8 weeks to be “Eating size” just can’t seem to make that first session. This year, due to how cold the soil was in early April, it looks like carrots in the third session, or possibly a bit sooner. Beets can be harvested as ‘mini-greens’ already, but the carrots are still too little.
Frog inspecting seed trays…
Larger plants like the Pac Choi, Broccoli, Cauliflower, Cabbage are all started in the greenhouse, so they can be in this first session. Pac Choi was intentionally, but perhaps mistakenly planted at less than a full four week window. Additionally, the bed that the Pac Choi was in seems to be infested with some sort of centipede-like critter that likes the roots. All that to say, no more Pac Choi till Fall. Broccoli and Cauliflower will be followed with a small planting of new cabbage just starting to form up heads; lettuce is great as is the Chard and Spinach.
The big disappointment is the Strawberries. The bed is in the middle of a major replant and repair discovered during weeding. The big excitement is the Boysenberries. They have set a lot of fruit, and should be amazing. One member last year said the flavor was almost like a rich wine. Since I don’t drink wine, all that can be said is that it is amazing. The other highly anticipated event is “The First Tomato.” There are two new varieties that are doing their level best to ripen right now – a cherry called “Gold Nugget” and a small slicer called “Oregon Spring.” Both these types are tolerant of cool nights and are not really aggressive at growing greens (short, in other words). There is one Gold Nugget that is orange-ing up, and probably enough Oregon Spring (which are turning white, first step to getting red) for each of the members to get one.
Just one more comment – Usually there are just a few of each item in your box. For example, one cauliflower head. This is especially the case in the first session of the season. Conceptually, this is a salad four weeks. If you want to shift to more or less of some particular item – say, less chard and more lettuce – well, ask us. Each box has a list of preferences such as ‘no Turnips’ that is covered as the picking happens. It is easy to adjust that each week. Also – there are 5 different lettuces ready right now. The rule of thumb here is to ‘work through’ a block of say Red Iceberg – but if you want something different, or you don”t want any more ‘Red Iceberg’ – well, drop us a note. There is a LOT of lettuce ready; there is a LOT of Swiss Chard.
And, this week you should get a till (a half pint or full pint container usually for berries) of baby red potatoes. Checked this out last week, and we are good to go!
In the box week 2:
| Greens | Lettuce (Red or Green), Spinach, Broccoli or Cauliflower. White or Red Chard; Baby beets for greens |
| Crunchies | Snap peas. Note will be a ‘hole’ in crunchies till new carrots and beets are here. |
| Herbs | Arugula, Green Onions, Chives, Basil, Cilantro, Parsley, Oregano |
| Other | Baby Red Potatoes; possibly some Purple or White as the volunteer plants are hunted down. Broccoli or Cauliflower. There are a couple of stray Cabbages still there if you ask. Flower of the week will be Roses again. No fruit this week. |
Next Week:
- TBD – not sure about Tomatoes.
On Deck:
- Raspberries, then a couple of weeks for Boysenberries
- Cabbage
And that’s the veggie story for this week!
