The News from Windflower Farm
What’s in the share?
- Assorted tomatoes
- Sweet corn
- Arugula
- Mixed mustard greens
- Radicchio
- Small green cabbages
- Garlic (use soon, will not keep long)
- Sweet peppers
- Red onions
Your fruit share will consist of our organically grown watermelons.
What’s new on the farm?
My nearly new Isuzu truck is still in the garage. The mechanics believe that they have diagnosed the problem and now await the parts. Supply chain problems have prolonged the wait, so we’ll arrive this week in a rental truck. The Uber driver who gave me a ride from the truck repair garage to the truck rental shop turned out to have been a former Yonder Farm employee. I was happy that he spoke well of Pete and his farm team. As an older man he sought the Uber job to get out of the field and into less physically demanding work. Although that part has worked out, it’s been a financial disaster for him. Gig work, he tells me, has not paid well.
In a round-about way my Uber driver introduced me to what might be the first fungicide I’m excited to trial in our Cucurbits. I mentioned my coincidental meeting of his past employee to the Yonder Farm manager when I picked up fruit the next day, which gave us a chance to talk about other topics, one of which was the diseases in our winter squashes. He described a trial he has underway to control diseases in his young apple tree crop. He has been spraying Howler, a beneficial bacterium that has been approved for organic production, and he’s seen results comparable to his conventional fungicides. Downy and Powdery mildews and Alternaria leaf spot, the scourges of organic Cucurbit production, are supposed to be effectively controlled by the product. I don’t like to spray, and have found few materials in the organic tool box worth spraying, but I’d like to improve our Cucurbit production, and I’ll try this one.
Next week’s share will look like this week’s except that Romaine will replace the cabbage, and we’ll add basil to the share. Radicchio will figure in shares soon, too. The fruit share will again be watermelons at some sites and peaches at others.
Have a great week! Ted
Central Brooklyn CSA 