Production Update

We’re enjoying some beautiful August days here on the farm. We’ve cut the water off on our winter squash and pumpkin fields. Over the coming weeks we’ll let the plants dry down and the squash fully cure before we cut the stems and pack them in totes for winter storage. It’s always a bit difficult to see what you have got, in terms of yield and quality, until the plants have died back, but at this stage things look pretty good. The Butternuts in particular look like one of the best crops we have grown—the size and shape are excellent and there is little of the splitting that they can be prone to. The pumpkins are fully sized up and mostly green still. There will be plenty of time for them to “color up” before Halloween, however.  In addition to Jack O’Lantern pumpkins, this year we planted Rouge Vif d’Etampes (or Cinderella Pumpkins) and Winter Elegance—our favorite cooking pumpkin.

Due to insurance issues we won’t be doing an all-out Harvest Festival like we have the past few years. But we will still hold a pumpkin patch in early October for you to load up on Halloween and fall cooking pumpkins.

Our late block of potatoes (we were forced to disc in the first planting because of wire worm damage) is in full bloom and the tubers themselves are starting to swell up. The plants look fantastic and there is no sign of worm damage, so starting in a few weeks we will dig the first of these as new potatoes—one of my favorite treats.

The next block of beans is flowering now and should also be ready in a few weeks. In addition to Filet Beans, we will have “Tongue of Fire” fresh shelling beans—another of my favorites. We have been planting beans every two to three weeks so we should have them fairly consistently through fall.

For the past month I’ve been marveling at our oregano patch which had gone to flower. Every time I walk by, I have to stop and listen to the buzzing sound – if I look closely I can see a bee (either a bumble bee or honey bee) on almost every flower stalk. Keith Kimes of Kimes Aviary just harvested honey from the hives he keeps here on the Harkins Slough farm and he reports that the flavor is very good. We’ll list the honey on the web store, available starting with Thursday deliveries this week. This will be the last honey available this year and quantities are limited so order early if you want to get some!