This Week’s Harvest
- Spaghetti Squash
- Salad Mix
- Tomatoes
- Dill
- Cantaloupe
- Sweet Corn
- Garlic
- Basil
- Zucchini
- Bell Peppers and/or Sweet Italian frying Peppers
- Swiss chard
- Green Beans
Farm News
One of the reasons I decided to farm as a career was that I get to spend time outside! I enjoy observing nature all around me and this year is no different than any other year with a flurry of activity. Birds and insects are the most common animal encounters we have. We always have lots of killdeer and horned larks on the farm. Every year at least one song sparrow builds a nest in the tomato planting.
While we harvested garlic this year we noticed orioles, kingbirds and eastern phoebes all along the tree line. We also kept hearing an interesting trilling call that we didn’t recognize. I pulled up my Merlin birding app and recorded the song and was able to get an identification of a Grasshopper Sparrow. It was really neat to learn about a bird I didn’t know existed. Their habitat is grasslands and prairies and Audrey informed us that grassland birds need at least 20 acres to stick around. So with our 30 acres of fields we’ve got that covered.
Right now the tomato planting is its own mini ecosystem. There are lots of aphids covering the plants, but it didn’t take long for an army of ladybugs to arrive and each plant has a least one ladybug who will dutifully eat the aphids. I have also noticed lots of lacewing eggs- these very cool delicate balls attached to a tiny thread, attached to whatever they were laid on. I see them on tomato stems, tomatoes themselves, and the posts holding the planting up as well. It’s the larvae stage of the lacewings that eat insects- mites, whiteflies and aphids are amongst their favorite foods. So thank our beneficials for the continued tomato harvest!
Recipes
Spaghetti Squash Aglio E Olio with Swiss Chard
Sweet Corn and Chard Gratin
Stuffed Zucchini
Coming up next week (our best guess….) Carrots, tomatoes, watermelon, zucchini, poblano peppers, sweet peppers, sweet onions, spaghetti squash, collards, sweet corn, tomatoes, basil