We are now deep into the Summer Season and with the high heat comes some new and interesting veggies for the Farm Stand. If you want a sneak peek at what’s to come, make sure to join us for our Farm Tour this Saturday (July 15th) at 10:30am. We’ll chat about what varieties will grow during the heat of summer and show you the ones we’re most excited about. And, you’ll be able to see all the gorgeous hues of our Benary Giant zinnias (pictured below) and a preview of the upcoming watermelon harvest! Our tours are open to the public and free of charge so we hope to see you there!

We’re beginning to harvest watermelons so we’ll have a few for you at the Farm Stand this weekend! Since our watermelons are just beginning to ripen, we’ll only have limited quantities available over the next week. Though there are many commonly used methods to test for a watermelon’s ripeness, we start by looking at the tendril nearest the melon’s stem on the vine. If it’s browning or dead, the melon is most likely ready! We also check to see if the spot where the melon has been resting on the ground is yellow which is another great indicator of the fruit being ready for harvest.

Hot pepper fans rejoice! These spicy crops are just beginning to trickle back into season with the first small harvest of both jalapeño and serrano peppers. While both of these peppers are green, you can easily tell them apart by their shape. Jalapeños (pictured on the left) are darker green with that quintessential chili pepper shape. Serranos (pictured on the right) are a lighter shade of green and are more slender in shape. Farmer Reuben loves to make salsa with these peppers or finely chop them and add them to ground beef for a spicy kick. You’ll be able to find limited quantities of each at the Farm Stand this weekend.

In Season at the Farm Stand: Eggplant, Watermelons (limited), Korean Melons, Long Beans, Okra, Sweet Peppers, Serrano Peppers (limited), Jalapeño Peppers (limited), Onions, and Cut Flower Bouquets (limited and only on Saturdays).

While spring doesn’t officially start until the 20th of this month, it sure feels like it has arrived on the farm! Always a sign of the return of spring, our tomatoes are being planted this week with zucchinis and cucumbers to follow suit. If you’d like to experience this spring transition on the farm, make sure to come to our next Farm Tour on Saturday, March 11th at 10:30am! Our Farm Tours are free of charge and open to the public but we ask that children be accompanied by an adult. We can’t wait to see you there!

When we shared that we had planted seeds for sweet and mild peppers in the greenhouse, we had a few inquiries about hot varieties. We’re happy to report that we planted seeds for our hot peppers last week! We focused on our three most popular hot peppers from last year: jalapenos, serranos, and habaneros. We’ll make sure to keep you updated on their progress so that you can plan your salsa and hot sauce crafting accordingly.

The beds in the high tunnel are nearly ready for spring planting! You can see in the photo below that we’ve added a layer of compost onto each empty bed. Compost is essentially decomposed organic materials (food scraps, leaves, etc.). Every time we prepare a bed for planting, we add a layer of compost in order to incorporate organic matter back into our soil. This helps to improve the soil structure, making it easier for roots, nutrients, and water to penetrate our clay-heavy soil.

In Season at the Farm Stand: Icicle Radishes, Broccoli Rabe, Kohlrabi, Celery, Spring Onions, Sugar Snap Peas, Salad Radishes, Turnips, Kale, Collards, Cabbage, and Cilantro.

September 2nd, 2021

We transplanted our fall succession of tomatoes this week! As they grow we’ll be adding trellises for support and ease of harvesting. If all goes well, we should be able to begin harvesting these tomatoes in October. Here are the varieties we have planted: Sungold (a sweet golden cherry variety), Grand Marshall (a red slicing variety), Mountain Princess (a round red slicing variety), and Neptune (a reddish orange slicing variety).

We’re harvesting quite the variety of peppers at the moment. For peppers with a bit of heat, we’ve been harvesting Jalapeños and Padróns with Poblanos coming on in the next couple of weeks. As for our sweet pepper varieties (seen in the photo above), we’ve been harvesting Shishito, Carmen, Escamillo, and Jimmy Nardello peppers. Shishito peppers (the peppers on the right side of the photo) are mild with a citrusy and grassy flavor. Shishitos can be eaten raw but they develop a rich and smoky flavor when blistered, grilled, or roasted. A popular Japanese preparation is to make Shishito tempura or to simply blister the peppers and serve them with a soy or miso-based dipping sauce.

There are quite a few fruits and veggies just over the harvesting horizon that we are really excited to share with you. In the next week or two, we’ll be harvesting fresh cowpeas, baby arugula, baby mizuna, and baby mustard greens. We’ll also be harvesting radishes, baby kale, and butternut squashes. Our next succession of Sugar Baby watermelons should be ready in the next couple of weeks and slightly further out will be our Arava melons. We’re looking forward to having a lot more diversity during our harvests!

July 28th, 2021

Though our last succession of patty pan squash didn’t last long thanks to the last push of rain, our zucchini just made its way back into season! We’re harvesting two different zucchini varieties: Dunja and Green Machine. Dunja yields a dark green zucchini while Green Machine is more of a medium green with light flecks. Just like many cucurbits, zucchini produce both male and female flowers on the same plant. Once pollen from the male flowers pollinates the females with a little help from our pollinators, the zucchini fruit begins to grow and swell until we harvest it at about 6-8 inches in length.

Our Armenian cucumbers are slowly but surely starting to fruit. Though they look and taste like a standard cucumber (Cucumis sativus), the Striped Armenian, Cucumis melo, is technically a melon! It has a curved shape and distinct dark and light green stripes. During the baby phase, these cucumbers have more of a fuzzy rather than prickly appearance making them easily distinguishable from most other cucumbers. We can’t wait for you to try this beautiful summer crop!

The first peppers of our jalapeño crop are starting to reach harvesting size. Generally, jalapeños can be harvested when they are between 3-5 inches in length. Did you know that capsaicin, the chemical that gives peppers their spice, is concentrated around the seeds and ribs of each pepper? If you prefer less heat, simply remove as much of the seeds and ribs as you want before using them in a recipe. Since we still have a lot of babies on our plants, they will be available in limited quantities at the farm stand for now so if you want some, make sure to get there early!