by milecreekfarm

CSA WEEK 10

This Week’s Harvest

Farm News

Welcome to summer bounty! While CSA boxes overflow in August, we try to figure out how to cram the equally overflowing work all in. The past 2 weeks we have dug 4 beds of potatoes. We have 25 beds left so Ben did some calculations and said to me, “if we stay with the 2 beds per week rate we’ll be done in 3 months.” That made me both laugh and cry a little. The plants are all pretty much dead but the potatoes can hang out in the soil until we are ready to dig them up. And we just have to get them out before a heavy October frost, so we actually do have 3 months to do the job. I just think we might be a little tired come month 3! Last week’s potato harvest was actually quite nice. The beds were starting to dry out which makes for chunky, dry uncomfortable digging around in the dirt. But on Thursday it rained a perfect amount- 1/2 an inch- which was enough to make the soil soft on our knees but not too wet so we couldn’t run the digger through. It’s good to remember the times the rain does work in our favor. We still have to irrigate 24/7 but we could take a break Thursday night after the rain and it took off some of the pressure. We had also just planted a large round of fall brassicas and the rain helped seal in the irrigation we had done right after planting. And again, it wasn’t too much rain to interfere with our plans for the next day’s work.

Our potato digger in action. It digs into the beds, lifts the potatoes out, and runs them on a shaking screen that breaks up the dirt. Taken last year–we have yet to unearth this year’s crop of yellow skin/yellow flesh taters

Recipes

Coming Up Next Week (our best guess….) Sweet corn, salad mix, shishito peppers, bell peppers, watermelon, sweet onions, basil, tomatoes, and more!