Veg of the Week 8/3/20: Socrates Cucumbers
Super crispy delicious cucumbers with no peeling required. Great for snacks, salads, and juicing!
This variety of cucumber is a Hybrid or F1, this simply means that it is a cross pollinated variety that will have some of the best traits from the parent plants, such as yield, disease resistance, and more. This is called hybrid vigor or heterosis. There are many benefits to hybrid plants however there can be drawbacks depending on your goals. Hybrid plants produce viable seed but it is not necessarily true to type, meaning the seed will most likely not produce the same variety of plant. In this case it will still be a cucumber but would express many different qualities, positive or negative from the farmers perspective.
An alternative to hybrid seeds are Open Pollinated Seeds. They produce true to type seeds generally, although they can cross with like species and produce hybrid varieties. Some major benefits of Open Pollinated Seeds are the ability to save the seeds, lower cost, and many more varieties as well as heirloom varieties. Heirloom Seeds have many definitions but generally are open pollinated seeds handed down through a community. They often come with the stories of the families and and communities who grow them. We mostly use Open Pollinated Seeds in our garden with the exception of a few Hybrid varieties.
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!
Celtuce - a lettuce grown for its delicious stalk! See our instagram for instructions on how to prepare it
Yukon Gold Potatoes
Purple Basil
Notes from the Farm:
Did you know that we're growing a Giant Pumpkin? We have been blown away by how quickly this pumpkin is growing. With drip irrigation giving it consistent and thorough watering, it has more than doubled in size in just 5 days! We placed cardboard underneath the pumpkin and over the top of it to shelter it from the sun, moisture from the ground, and scratchy pumpkin vines. This pumpkin is also edible! How many pies do you think it will make when it is fully grown?
With your help we have donated $125 to Equitable Giving Circle!
We will continue to donate 10% of coffee and tea sales to Equitable Giving Circle, which from their website, "aims to build immediate and increased equity throughout Portland’s BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) communities through a combination of fund development and network building opportunities that center economic equity." We feel strongly about supporting our local community, farmers and access to fresh produce for all.