June has come (well, it actually has been here for a week now) and it is time for the semi-famous Shilofarm CSA Monthly Update – Tada!
The Main season is in the third week; some of the garden crops are now starting to show up in the boxes, but not all, not yet. The plan was to have new season Carrots by now; cold weather in April slowed down the soil temp, and so the carrots are very tiny as yet. Below is the current session map for the rest of the year:
Remaining Season Map
Obviously, there will be some wiggling around – corn may be in main 3 for example.
Huckleberry Potato on left, Red Norland on right.
Currently, a lot of main season planting is done. There are new starts of seeds for Lettuce and some other crops that happen almost every week. Oddly enough, things like over-wintered onions (special types), parsnips, cabbage and carrots are all in the plans for now. Parsnips are especially good in soup; those who have tried it so have really enjoyed it. The other item of note is that there will be an attempt to continue pushing out Katrina cabbage and more cauliflower and broccoli. It is a challenge to find types that can endure the dry of August.
There was an attempt to increase both the diversity and quantity of winter squash for this year. Since winter squash, especially the Candy Roaster type are such good keepers there will be an opportunity as the season wraps up to stock pile for yourself.
The major improvement effort for the garden is towards lower labor. That has been focused on using a paper roll mulch and adding hard edges to the beds to reduce weed infiltration. The results have been dramatic; almost a 90% reduction of weeding. The additional improvements underway include a radical makeover of the strawberries to incorporate the paper mulch and add compost to the beds while replacing older plant root stock. There really won’t be any result for that in 2021, but 2022 should be pretty good. Permanent herb beds and cut flower beds are also in play. The center piece will be an official garden shed. Probably this Fall.
Which brings up that there are still openings for the CSA…
Tourist with Pet Squash ^
Lastly, you are invited to drop in and tour. The best day for that is Saturday; however if you drop a note or call something can be worked out. The farm Schedule is like this:
- Sunday – rest up.
- Monday, Tuesday – Seeding, Transplanting, Weeding
- Wednesday – Pick and ship for West side route
- Thursday – Project day
- Friday – Pick and ship for East side route
- Saturday – Farm Call, house site work.
If you want to come get dirty… that is especially nice!
