I’ve been getting some questions about tomatoes already so I guess people are getting in the mood for summer vegetables and fruits. It certainly feels like summer with these long days, kids out of school, and the solstice just around the corner. The thing about summer vegetables is that they need those long warm days to grow! Our tomatoes are shaping up to come in earlier than we’ve ever had them before, but they still need a few more weeks. The cherry and grape tomatoes are starting first, and will appear most likely in the “mystery” slot for starters. We’re starting to see some red in some of the other varieties — beefsteak, striped Germans, brandywines, and the popular Japanese slicers (Momotaro). Here are some pictures of these beautiful tomato plants to hold you over until the real thing appears in the boxes. Other summery goodies like peppers (bell, Hungarian wax, and corno di toro), and beans (filet and cranberry) are working their way towards ripeness as well.
We continue to have aphid troubles in the brassicas, as a second otherwise healthy and beautiful planting of broccoli and romanesco has succumbed to severe aphid infestation. Steve speculates that the neighboring farm’s extensive mustard cover crop provides a host to brassica aphids—we had a similar issue a couple years ago when they put a nearby field in mustard cover crop. We’ll fill that slot with some nice broccoli from Coke Farm this week, where they are not having these problems.
Sadly, the blueberry bushes are finished for the season. It’s been an early, short season for the blueberries, with one variety – the South Moons – never really kicking in at all. Last year we still had blueberries coming in through early-mid July. It could be the mild winter, which affected many kinds of fruit around the state with early blooming, and it could be a cyclical pattern with the bushes, which produced very well last year. We did have enough berries for some good u-pick days, but had expected to continue to have berries to put in the boxes for another month.
Each year brings new challenges and successes. One thing that can be said about farming is that it never gets boring!
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