This week we finished planting all the winter squashes and pumpkins. We’re doing more delicatas this year since we ran out too early last year. All told there are 12 varieties of squash and pumpkins planted–delicata, carnival, spaghetti, Blue Ballet hubbard, orange and green kabocha, butternut, Marina di Chioggia, and blue kuri squashes. The pumpkin patch has winter luxury pie pumpkins, rouge vif d’etampes (Cinderellas), and Jack O’Lantern pumpkins.
The main field we planted to winter squash consists of a couple acres below our apple orchard. In order to combat the well endowed weed seed bank in this area, we used the stale seed bed method. We prepared the raised beds for planting and buried a single line of drip tape in the middle of each bed. We watered it twice to germinate the weed seeds, so a strip of seedling weeds sprouted all along the driplines. The next step was to do a quick pass over the field with the “flame weeder.” This burns off the weed seedlings leaving a nice clean bed to plant the winter squash seeds into. Having learned his lesson a few years ago when he inadvertently set our apple orchard on fire, Steve was extra careful to walk behind the tractor and make sure the flames stayed exactly where we want them to.
Our son Lee has been learning to prune tomato vines in the hoophouses this week. This is an ongoing task as the tomato plants grow. Basically, we prune off side-shouts, or “suckers”, and leave a single leader that we attach to pieces of twine that hang from the ceiling. With this method we effectively grow the plants vertically– they will reach over 8 feet high when mature. This allows us to space the plants much more closely to take advantage of the limited space inside the tunnels.
The first varieties of tomatoes will be Japanese momotaro and early girl types which should start appearing in your boxes starting in a couple of weeks. These will be followed by other varieties of tomatoes and peppers. Cucumbers are looking good this year and are not too far off. So summer vegetables are on their way!
This is the time of year when the farm harvest is approaching its most abundant. It unfortunately corresponds with a time of year when many of our subscribers go on vacation. Please remember that you can donate your share for weeks that you are away, by changing your pick-up site to “Donate” for those weeks. When you choose to donate your share we get to harvest the vegetables that are ready in the field and Loaves and Fishes gets that fresh produce to feed hungry families in Watsonville. Thank you!
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