Some of you will receive “new” potatoes in your box this week. These are simply potatoes that have been dug before the skins have set and the plants have dried down. I remember an English customer at a Farmer’s Market once who asked if my potatoes were “English” new potatoes, as if the name implied a specific variety. In fact, they can be from any variety—this week we are digging Desirees.
Because their skins are so tender, new potatoes can look skinned up after they are washed. Rest assured, however, that despite their somewhat haggard appearance, new potatoes are a rare treat—with sweet, moist and creamy flesh. In my opinion they are best tossed in olive oil and roasted until their skins are a nice crispy brown. Enjoy them soon however, and keep them in the fridge until you do, because new potatoes don’t keep well.
The focus on the farm this week is getting our 2015 strawberry field ready for planting next month. After performing the primary tillage steps—deep ripping, discing and chiselling—we’ll level the entire field to be sure there are no low spots and that the field drains properly during the winter. After that, we spread gypsum (a source of calcium and sulfur) and mustard seed meal and incorporate them before setting out sprinkler pipe and giving the field a good soaking. We’ll let the field dry out for a week or so before listing (or forming) up beds. Listing up strawberry beds is the one farm operation that we hire out to an outside company. Their large tractors can pull up three beds in a single pass, and because they use GPS guidance, the beds end up being much straighter than I could ever make them.
We have a lovely pumpkin patch this year — the pumpkins are coloring up in plenty of time for our Pumpkin Patch October 4th. We’ll have Jack o’Lantern, Rouge Vif d-Etampes, and small cooking pumpkins. No big festival this year, but it’s a lovely time to come out to see the farm. Mark your calendars and plan to come get your organic holiday pumpkins directly from the field. (Note: the pole in the left background in this picture of our pumpkin patch is a bat detector. A UCSC graduate student is monitoring bats for research on how bats use agricultural landscapes and which insects they eat. Bats are a beneficial predator for the farm, so we are interested in what her research shows about our bat population.)
If you enjoyed this article, please consider sharing it!
