Harvesting the First Watermelons
August 12th, 2021
We’ve got a summer treat for you…we’ll have the first watermelons available at the farm stand this Saturday! The variety we’re harvesting is “Sugar Baby” and you can bet it lives up to its name in terms of flavor. Sugar Baby is what is known as an “icebox” or “picnic” watermelon variety because it is small enough to easily fit inside your fridge (or a picnic basket). This variety has dark green skin and red flesh along with that quintessential watermelon flavor. We like to think of Sugar Baby as a personal-sized melon because we can easily polish one off in a single sitting after a hot day on the farm.
Along with our watermelons, we’ll be harvesting a new cucumber variety: Tsuyataro. This Japanese variety yields glossy, dark green cucumbers with smooth skin. Tsuyataro is a “burpless” variety with crisp, firm flesh that makes it perfect for snacking on raw. In Japanese cuisine, this variety is commonly used to make Tsukemono (pickled cucumbers). Japanese pickles are typically used as a garnish, relish, or digestive food. You can read all about the process here if you’d like to make your own.
For the past several weeks at our Saturday farm stand we’ve been offering a build your own bouquet option with our fresh cut flowers. Have you had a chance to try it yet? This allows our customers to exercise a little creativity and only choose stems they want to take home and admire. You can pick from a colorful mix of zinnias, sunflowers, and marigolds that are currently being grown and harvested on the farm. If you’d like to build your own bouquet and pick up some beautiful produce at the same time, make sure to stop by our farm stand on Saturday from 10am-noon!
