Spring 2009 CSA
Newsletter April 24, 2009
This Past Week
The good news is that we delivered our first harvest shares for the spring season program without too many hitches. (In fact this was our CSA program “maiden voyage” delivery.) Thanks to all of you, including our hosts, for your patience and kind support. The bad news is that last weekend’s 3.75 inches of rain here at the farm was enough to really hurt our baby greens crop, especially the mizuna, arugula and tatsoi. Even though our beds contain lost of healthy compost, the baby greens just don’t like too much rain all at once. Perhaps we’ll get lucky with the warmer temps and these greens will dry out enough to remain healthy. Although we were busy early in the week harvesting crops to feel your farm shares, we were able to plant the next wave of beefsteak tomatoes in the field on Friday.
Field Update
The farm lease down the road fortunately survived the recent monsoon like rains, as some of the zucchini and squash are looking excellent. To my surprise the yellow squash already has blossoms with “itsy bitsy” baby squash, about the size of an elongated nickel, developing at the end of some of the flowers. The cucumbers and cantaloupe still seem a tad lethargic, but hopefully the warm weather will get them on track. The tomatoes, grown in our open sided greenhouses, seem to be doing great. Lots of blooms are now appearing with ping-pong sized green tomatoes developing as well. The tomatoes that got real burned from the freeze two weeks ago are making a nice comeback. These plants looked pretty ugly last week, but most of them are developing new shoots now. While we hate to see any plants lost from a freeze, we are especially close to our tomatoes as we “baby sat” them for two months in greenhouses before transplanting them outside. Hopefully we’ll begin to harvest our first tomatoes in a few weeks. Unfortunately, like a lot of things in the garden, the tomato harvest will probably start off slow prior getting up to speed. As some of you may have witnessed, the strawberries were hurt by the recent wet weather conditions. Hopefully, next week’s harvest will be better and more prolific. We still have enough broccoli and cauliflower in the field for another week or so, but if it gets too hot, these cool loving plants may “bolt.” Bolting is the term growers use to describe when a plant goes from growth mode to the reproductive mode. So when broccoli, or any other annual plant, senses a prolonged environmental threat (weather being too hot, too cold, less daylight etc), the plant changes priorities and begins creating the next generation of seeds. This is Mother Nature’s way of trying to guarantee that there will always be of seeds for another crop. Consequently, when broccoli begins to “bolt”, the plant stops creating a nice flavorful edible head and focuses on making seeds. With respect to our potatoes, they were “swimming” for a while last week but for the most part our potatoes are still looking pretty good. Unfortunately we may lose some of the potato plants to root rot, as the soil may have stayed too wet, too long, for healthy plant growth.
We Have Begun Harvest, Now What?
If everything works out weather wise, we should have continued deliveries every Wednesday for the next nine weeks. We will send out an email every Tuesday p.m. reminding you of your Wednesday pickup. Hopefully, everyone, including ourselves, will be more familiar with the pick operations and times as we move forward. We promise to work harder to be punctual at all locations.
What Else?
This week coming up will be similar to last week’s harvest. While there may be a few changes, we expect the harvest of cole crops, i.e. cabbage, broccoli, and cauliflower, to cease in about one or two weeks. Hopefully, by then the carrots and beets will be large enough to add to your shares. After that the squash will begin to trickle in, followed by tomatoes and cucumbers. Beginning mid May, we can hope for the potatoes to be ready. All along we hope to have salad mix and some sort of herb to compliment your weekly shares. Oh yes, we really hope for strawberries too!
Open House at Wood Duck Farm?
As mentioned last week, Saturday, May 16th we are going to have an open house here at Wood Duck Farm with the time frame being 10:30- 3:00 p.m.. The format will be a “potluck” lunch with a farm tour and hopefully endeavors that all of you, including kids, will enjoy. Next week we will present a more detailed agenda of what to expect. FYI, our Woodlands host, Rebecca Schner, has offered to help us out with some of the pre-open house tasks. If you too wish to come early and volunteer, please let us know.
I’ll be at the Bayou City Farmers Market tomorrow, Saturday April 25th . I should have my normal coolers full of greens and prepared food items. I’ll have some extra broccoli as well.
Until next time,
VanCell 713 876 8645
csa@woodduckfarm.com