The News from Windflower Farm
What’s in the share?
- Assorted tomatoes
- Eggplant
- Onions
- Sweet corn
- Kale
- Lettuce
- Carrots
- Arugula
Insects in corn are usually confined to the tips of the ears. So, here’s my recommendation, which also helps make for a tidy way of dealing with the messy silk and the flag ears: lay the ear out on the cutting board, position all of the flag ears and silk above the ear tip and then chop the ear two or three inches below the tip, placing all of it (plus any worms) in your compost bucket.
We’ve disced under what remains of our turnips and kohlrabi. Thank goodness. And there is a gap in our cucumber and squash successions, so what’s coming? More tomatoes, sweet corn, and lettuce, along with onions and kale. New additions, peppers and garlic, should be in shares next week. Basil will come along soon. Beets and fennel will be back in a couple of weeks, and cucumbers and summer squashes will appear again in about three weeks.
The fruit share will be blueberries from Yonder Farm.
What’s new on the farm?
Yesterday, while on a bike ride, we took note of the roadside wildflowers in bloom. A partial census: red and white clover, Birdsfoot trefoil, wild blue chicory, Queen Anne’s lace, daisy fleabane, Joe Pye weed, Boneset, cattails, and the invasive purple loosestrife.
I worked in three fields with rye cover crops today, discing in a huge amount of organic matter. The mature seed heads shattered as I drove my equipment across the field, effectively reseeding the crop. Next year, when we plant these fields to vegetables, they should have improved tilth and far fewer weeds.
Our sweet corn is ready for harvest in the next field over. And on cue, racoons have shown up. To keep them out of the corn, we have installed a pair of fences around the field: an inner fence made of woven wire and an outer fence comprised of four horizontal wires. Both stand just 30 inches tall and both are electrified. This is the only way we have found to keep the little corn-stealing bandits out of the corn, at least all but the Olympic caliber athletes among them.
Have a great week, Ted
Central Brooklyn CSA 