Veg of the Week 8/17/20: Kale
Our first crops of Kale are ready to go and we are so excited to share them with you. We are currently offering two varieties of Kale, Black Magic (pictured above) and Casper (pictured below). We will offer both varieties in the full share Farmer's Choice Produce Box and depending on supply we will offer one or both varieties in the half share. We'd love to hear how you enjoy cooking Kale. Let us know on our Instagram or Facebook pages!
What else is growing:
These are new additions to our garden and they'll be available in both full share and half share Farmer's Choice Produce Bags as available! The first of the season is limited but soon there will be plenty!
Tomatoes - While we're about to be flush in tomatoes disease has found some roots among our vines. We're experience some form of tomato blight still to be identified, we believe it is early blight or perhaps leaf spot blight. This has the potential to destroy our tomato crops, we will work to remove the affected material and adjust growing conditions.
Tomatillos - The base of many green salsas this sweet and tangy fruit is great in so many dishes.
Chiles - Black Hungarian, an heirloom varietal from the seed savers exchange now and more to follow soon! Shishitos & Jimmy Nardellos may make an appearance this week as well, especially with this heat!
Notes from the Farm:
Tomato Blight is a new occurrence for us and potentially a devastating one. We're still learning about this fungal problem. Any advice is welcome, we'll keep you updated on the situation!
A snapshot of our soil. We just removed many of our beans and are turning the beds over for our fall crops. Part of our preparation is to broad fork, which provides deep tillage with minimal disruption of the habitats within. In this photo we have lifted the soil so we can see it, usually when using the broad fork you simply lift until the soil cracks on the surface. This allows air deep into the soil as well as breaking up any deep compaction.
In this photo the two vertical lines are the marks from the broadfork, there are 4 12" tines on our fork, as you can see this has much less of an impact compared to traditional tillage.
We also leave the roots of many of our plants in the soil, especially legumes such as beans and peas as they can fix nitrogen into the soil. As they decompose they also leave space and food for the many bugs and insects within the soil. In this sample we also see the tunnel likely created by a mole and potentially shared with other furry friends.
Above is an example of a half share veggie box. The variety of produce offered in the boxes will shift from week to week and season to season but will always include many different kinds of vegetables to give you diversity in your cooking throughout the week.