Heat wave. What a heat wave. We are starting at 5am this week to get produce in to beat the heat. I wish I could write you a more eloquent blog for your first share, but I’m running on fumes, and my normal 5am-7am office hours are now harvest hours so I can’t squeeze this in tomorrow morning.
We’ve got a great first share this week. Beets are in and looking great, cilantro, scallions, lettuce . . .it’s a great start to summer. Broccoli, peas and zucchini are just around the corner, and guess who else we will have extra early this year?
Yep, tomatoes! Our high tunnel tomatoes are doing really well, and I’d guess we are just 4 weeks away from our first tomatoes of the season, with many more to follow.
It’s starting to look more and more like a vegetable farm around here. Our crew has been working hard trellising peas and tomatoes, last week we cultivated almost everything we have planted. Our sweet potato slips are on their way here from an organic farm in Georgia and we prepared the beds for planting last Thursday, so we can put them in the ground as soon as they arrive.
And we got a new tool. The best tool ever, maybe . . .
We got a water reel. It’s basically a big spool that you park at the end of the bed and pull out a long hose which has a sprinkler attached. The reel then pulls in the sprinkler slowly, watering up to 60 feet to either side of the sprinkler on its way back. Output is up to 40 gallons/minute. We’re using it right now. It’s really awesome. Can you spot Kevin running away from it in this picture?
Our cover crop of rye and vetch turned our really well. We will be mowing and turning this in this week to prepare for our fall plantings!
Ok, that’s it for my brief update. If you signed up for a summer share but didn’t receive an email, please email brittany@upswingfarm.com to confirm your share. First check your spam folder!
For those of you who don’t get a summer share, we will be open for farm stand sales Thursday 4pm-7pm and at the Ashland Farmer’s market, Saturday 9am -1pm. We hope to see you there!
Upswing Farm 