Abbe Hills Farm CSA

Greetings shareholders,

This week, we have onions, carrots, garlic, summer squash, basil, cilantro, beans, tomatoes, bell peppers, chili peppers, kale, and collards.  We will try to have potatoes for everybody, but the rain last week prevented us from digging as many as we will need this week, and I'm not sure we'll be able to dig fast enough for everybody to get potatoes on Monday night.  We'll do our best.  We also might have cucumbers for one more time, depending on how near death they are.  Cucumbers really don't like to live too long.  We have another crop that will come along some time in September, I think.

I had some carrots in the hoophouse that I was hoping would do well for us.  Good news.  They are beautiful.  Being in the hoophouse gave them protection from the pounding rains, and allowed me to water them frequently enough to get them to germinate well.  Guess that might be the best place for me to grow your carrots from now on.

The gorgeous early tomatoes suddenly turned ugly last week.  I guess it is the heat and humidity, although I'm ready to give up trying to understand the tough conditions this summer.   Nearly 75% of the slicing tomatoes we harvested on Saturday had a serious blemish, even though they are caged and mulched.  As far as I can tell, we did everything right, and still they are all beat up.  There are plenty of tomatoes right now, but they aren't pretty, and they won't last too long on your counter.  We'll give you as many as we can this week.  Please expect to select some with cracks and eat them fast.  Their taste has been great.  And so far, the second tomato crop is healthy and happy.  Maybe the cooler nights will help them to stay alive and yield well until frost.

We took advantage of the one sort-of-dry day last week to plant lots of lettuce, spinach, beets, chard, Chinese cabbages, and radishes for fall.  We've got the new fence up around the fall beds and expect to get it electrified this week.  Too bad deer!!!!   No more lettuce for you!!!!  Hope to plant even more beds of spinach, lettuce, arugula, radishes, and Asian greens on Monday to be ready for the showers Tuesday morning. 

We've got a really, really, really bad insect pest in the potatoes, eggplants, and tomatoes.  Colorado potato beetle is a voracious feeder of everybody in the potato family.  I've had to learn much more about them while trying to figure out how to manage them so they don't destroy every single eggplant plant.  As of yesterday, we were winning and they were lagging.  Don't know what it will be like tomorrow, but I do know that we won't have any eggplant fruits for a couple of weeks.  I hope to have time to tell you the whole story later this week. 

Here is the link to a story on an experiment to see if people could be encouraged to buy more fruits and vegetables when they grocery shop.  Very interesting result.

I spent today at a Practical Farmers of Iowa and Iowa Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association workshop at Grinnell Heritage Farm.  It was well worth a day away from home.  We got to see and try out lots of tools that they use to mechanize many of the steps involved in growing, harvesting, and packing large amounts of vegetables.  I'm especially interested in a machine that lays out beds for planting things like beets and lettuce in three narrow rows, which can also be used to remove the little weeds that come up between the very small plants.  And tonight I've been shopping for a tool that a friend in Des Moines recommends for digging potatoes.  It's called a "middle buster".  Sounds like it ought to work.  Anything we can do to make potato digging easier is worth the investment and I am looking forward to getting one and trying it out this week.  Especially since it's going to be cool and sunny!!!  Can't wait!!!!

See you this week,

Laura