Happy Friday! I’m really feeling in the harvest mode recently. Technically on our farm we are harvesting different crops from Asparagus on, but now in late summer, there are just a lot of items adding up. I start noticing it when I am writing out a bill to a roadside farm stand we wholesale to, and I almost run out of lines on the invoice pad because there are so many items! We are not quite there yet, but getting really close! On my deliveries to Wegmans the past few days I step in the back of the truck and am hit with the smell of peppers. They permeate the entire back of the truck with their chile aromas and it smells like pure summer. Even one of the Wegmans produce managers commented on it yesterday.
Seedless watermelon plumping up.
Here is another favorite of summer… Watermelon! These are ripening up beautifully in the melon patch. They are very inconspicuous, mostly hidden amongst their leaves. We have five different varieties of melon this year. One of them is even SEEDLESS! Very excited about that one. The other four are what we have done in the past: red and yellow seeded watermelon, cantaloupe, and a mini, personalized cantaloupe called sugar cube.
Remnants from the pickle patch, before it's cover cropped.
Here is a part of summer that is not so fun. Cleaning up the rows of plastic from spring and early summer vegetables like zucchini and pickles (I know these are both technically fruits… you do NOT want to get me started on that rant). We start by mowing off the vines so they are not in the way of pulling up plastic. Then we go over the beds with a simple tool on the back of the tractor that lifts up the edges where they are buried to loosen the plastic. This job can get real dirty, especially if it’s rainy and muddy like it has been. However it is necessary so we can get cover crops in place to regenerate the soil, and all sorts of other awesome benefits. I will get into that plenty more when we get some planted.
Everything is going well on the rest of the farm. The peaches are still coming and we are getting into the freestone varieties now, like Redhavens, Glohavens, and John Boys. We have a yellow and a white donut peach right now too! For those who haven’t tried them they are extremely tasty, and easy to eat. The yellow variety has a firm, I like to say bouncy flesh. It reminds me a lot of a baby gold peach.
Ok, back to work I go. Thank you so much for reading and see you back here next week!
Cantaloupe vines on the left, watermelon vines on the right.