The News from Windflower Farm
What you’ll get this week
- Zucchini or summer squash
- Kale or Choy (choice)
- Yellow wax beans
- Yellow onions
- Fennel
- Lettuce
- Tomatoes
- Cabbage or Radicchio or Sweet Peppers (choice)
Your fruit share will be blueberries from Yonder Farm
Beans, peppers and eggplants are beginning to come in, tomatoes and squashes are yielding well, and sweet corn is just around the corner… it must be summer in the Upper Hudson Valley.
News from the farm
Another inch and three quarters of rain fell since I last wrote, but most of that was early in the week, and a drying out has already begun. Sunshine is expected for the next few days. We took advantage of our first opportunity to get tractors in the fields to fling compost and shape beds on Thursday, and by Friday we had transplanted lettuce, kale, choy and chard and direct-seeded spinach, cilantro, and green beans. My outlook is a little brighter today.
A soil health tour came through here mid-week. My role was to describe our cover cropping and composting. Turnout was good, but the lack of complication in our cover cropping might have been a disappointment to some in attendance. In spring, we use oats and peas, and in fall, we use rye and hairy vetch. Both blends add nitrogen and organic matter to the soil, improve soil tilth, reduce erosion, and suppress weeds. That’s all there is to it, off to the next farm. In my experience, simple is best. Perhaps, in some future where we have more land than we need for vegetables, and more time to sort things through, we’ll add complexity.
It’s steamy hot this morning. Hobbes the cat is playing dead again, legs splayed and undignified (Jan tells me he’s “splooting”). I slow down enough to confirm that he is still breathing and then head to our onion cleaning setup, where Jan, Nate and I will prepare some onions for shipping to our friends at Denison Farm. They represent our side of a trade that will provide carrots for you a little later in the season. In this weather, farmers have had unexpected successes and failures, and swaps make sense.
Have a great week, Ted
Central Brooklyn CSA 