This week’s share includes:

• Cabbage
• Carrots
• Celery
• Sweet corn – provided by another Longmont farmer; grown without any chemical sprays, so there might be worms
• Cucumbers - green slicers, thin-skinned seedless, and yellow
• Garlic
• Onions - red and Walla Walla
• Peppers - green bell and yellow Hungarian Hot Wax (HOT being the operative word!)
• Shallot
• Summer squash - yellow crookneck and golden zucchini
• Swiss chard
• Tomatoes - Cherokee Purple heirloom and red hybrids (large and small)

With all of our helpers back in school, and Mike’s Dad back home in Indiana, Lisel and I were on our own for today’s harvest.  Well, we had Chris to help, and did he do a good job!

All that hard picking makes a guy hungy.

After lunch, Chris served as our official harvest day photojournalist.  Carrot harvesting from a 3-year old’s perspective:

This week’s share includes the first of the tomatoes, peppers, and corn:

• Basil
• Beans – green and yellow wax mixed
• Cabbage
• Carrots
• Sweet corn – provided by another local farmer; note that it’s conventionally grown
• Celery
• Cucumbers – green slicers and yellow pickles
• Garlic
• Onions – red and Walla Walla
• Peppers – green bell and yellow Hungarian Hot Wax (HOT being the operative word!)
• Shallot
• Summer squash – yellow crookneck and golden zucchini
• Swiss chard
• Tomatoes – Cherokee Purple heirloom

[Back-post from 7/23]

The picture above shows our garlic harvest hanging in the hoophouse to cure.  The garlic journey began 9 months ago, when we planted cloves last October.  During the waning days of Autumn, the cloves put down (hopefully) solid roots that would get it through the cold winter.  As the temperature warmed up in Spring, shoots appeared, and the leaves started growing.  Sometime in July, the tops started to die, and the heads were then ready for harvest.  After harvest, it needs to dry down for a few weeks to increase its storage life.  That’s why it’s currently hanging in the hoophouse.

Thanks to our friends from Stonebridge Farm (who gave us the seed as a gift at the end of last season), we have three varieties: German Extra Hardy, Inchelium Red, and a softneck variety that’s been grown at Stonebridge for a long time.

This year we’ve been, shall we say, entomologically challenged.  Here we see our hope challenged by Mexican Bean Beetles (known among entomologists as MBB).  The larva look like this:

Mexican Bean Beetles are related to lady beetles (Coleoptera), and the adults look very similar.  They differ, though, in that unlike lady beetles, which are carnivores and will eat other insects, MBB are herbivores, and eat only plants.  Usually beans.  And more importantly to us, OUR beans.

The approach we’re considering  for controlling them, should the damage get extensive enough, is to release beneficial wasps that parasitize the larva.  From what we gather, wasps are the most effective control short of spraying pesticide.  We’ll let you know how it goes if we end up releasing any wasps.

At the risk of waxing too philosophical, I’ve always found a freshly-planted field to be full of hope.  You prepare the soil, carefully mark the beds and rows, lovingly plant the seeds, and water it all in, all because of what you expect to reap in a few weeks’ time.

I guess it’s something of an act of faith, too.  You know the seeds are there, you know the sun will shine, but whether or not they grow is ultimately beyond your control.  You just have to trust that they’ll do what they’re meant to do.  And in the meantime, you enjoy, in the case of this field, visions of salad mix, beets, radishes, turnips, carrots, and spinach.

Sorry, we didn’t manage to get a photo of this week’s share.  But here’s what it contains:

This week’s share includes:

This week’s share includes:

Basil
The quintessential taste of summer.

Green Beans
Beans are beans, right? Nope. This variety is called Jade and it is the best tasting variety we’ve grown.

Beets and Salad Turnips
Early Wonder are the classic red beets. Chioggia are the lighter red, an Italian heirloom which have rings of color when you slice them open. They are a little milder in taste than the Early Wonders. They are pictured below with white salad turnips. Use the greens the way you would spinach or swiss chard.

Broccoli
There were enough sideshoots to provide 1/2 lb for each share. We tried to find all the caterpillars, but may have missed some, so give it a good check.

Carrots
We took the tops off so they will keep better.

Garlic and Red Onions
The garlic has cured so it should keep for a while, although more will be coming over the next few weeks. The onions has not cured yet so use them in the next couple of weeks.

Swiss Chard and Kale
The swiss chard has multicolored stems. Eat both the leaves and the stems.Rainbow Lacinato is the variety of kale we grow. Kale is power packed with nutrition.

Lettuce
There are two varieties this week: a romaine called Paris Island and Anuenue, a variety developed in Hawaii, which looks like iceberg lettuce. We’ve switched to summer lettuces now, which will hopefully hold up in the heat better than the early season varieties.

Summer Squash, Zucchini and Cucumber
This week’s share includes two yellow summer squash, one green zucchini, and a cucumber. The squash and zucchini can be used interchangeably in most recipes. The zucchini and cucumbers are courtesy of Lone Hawk Farm.

It was a big harvest day!

For several weeks now we’ve had pretty high levels of insect pressure.  First it was flea beetles, then it was cabbage worms (they come from all the pretty white moths fluttering around).  The latest insects to dine in the garden seem to be Harlequin bugs.

A type of stink bug, they apparently are finding cabbage and broccoli to their liking.  Being relatively large and slow-moving, we opted to control them by hand-picking rather than using a pesticide.  It’s a perfect job for the kids to do.  Walking down the row, they knock the bugs into a bucket of soapy water.  Ivory dish soap seems to work well.  The bugs drown, and then we dump them out on the ground.  I guess they give back the broccoli they ate in the form of fertilizer!

Drowned Harlequin bugs:

A quantity of drowned Harlequin bugs:

Fertilizer in the form of drowned Harlequin bugs:

This week’s share includes:

Beets
Early Wonder is the variety.  They are a classic red beet.  Use the greens the way you would spinach or swiss chard.

Broccoli
There were enough sideshoots to provide 1/2 lb for each share.  We tried to find all the caterpillars, but may have missed some, so give it a good check.

Carrots
Yea, they’ve finally sized up!

Green Onions
Unlike the scallions, these have started to bulb up a little.

Kale
Rainbow Lacinato is the variety.  Kale is power packed with nutrition.  It’s also very appealing to the same caterpillars that like broccoli.  Just eat around the holes.

Lettuce
Two heads of a romaine called Paris Island.  We’ve switched to summer lettuces now, which will hopefully hold up in the heat better than the early season varieties.

Peas
Either Sugar Snap or Snow, our choice.  With the hot temps , pea production is starting to slow down, but we picked enough for about 1/2 lb per share.

Radishes
The classic red radish called Cherry Belle.  In our sampling, we found them not too zingy, although the heat seemed to come on