Egg plants are starting to come in, pick ones that are at least7 inches. we have a white & a purple variety, both with thin fruit. Don't wait for them to get fat.
Tomatoes are coming ripe. Pull of yellowed or yellowing leaves where you can, sort through the vines to find the ripe ones. The cherries are more likely to be ripe than bigger tomatoes, but some big ones are ready too
Summer squash - the plants look ragged from being thinned and having some mildew on them, but the fruits are fine. Look for them. NOTE The hard squash closer to the individual plots (the red scarlet runner beans on the trellis is the dividing line) is winter squash, mostly butternut, and should not be picked for a while.
Pick leafy greens - arugula, kale, chard, lettuce and collards. . . from the BOTTOM, leaving the top leaves. There's still some spring lettuce that hasn't gotten bitter. Taste the lower leaves to see if you can use it. Closer to the top is more bitter now.
Pick basil by pinching off the TOP leaves - that makes it generate more stems & more leaves. Then you can pick the big leaves underneath it, but leave a joint with new leaves where the new growth can take off.
Broccoli is that first bed with lots of petunias, next to the pea fence. Harvest florets that are just on the edge of opening up to flowers by cutting the floret at its base. LEAVE THE PLANT. It will generate more, smaller florets that are delicious.
All the large farm share cabbage have been taken - I can only account for three that have gone to members or people who had permission, although there might be some that members picked I don't know about. If you are a plot share member, please leave the rest of the cabbage for farm share members - we haven't gotten any yet and were planning on it.
******************************************************************
WHAT WE ACCOMPLISHED LAST WEEK
Linda F and Charlotte took on the powdery mildew-ed summer squash, cutting off leaves, pulling out plants that were shot, and putting it all in plastic trash bags, which you will see at the top of the garden near the squash. That plant trash needs to NOT go in our compost pile. It's not a bad idea to wear a mask if you are working on the plants that have mildew issues. Powdery mildew is generally not harmful to people, but not getting it down in your lungs seems like a better way to go.
Charlotte & Linda ? ? - any chance you can start doing the same thing to the winter squash? Maybe train some other people how to do it?
Sue & Karen & I did an intensive carrot-thinning-weeding-pulling lesson so they can deal with the carrots in short chunks of time when they are in the garden.
Back by the pine trees in the bed that has lots of big gorgeous arugula, I prepared a space for new plantings, which Sue planted with green onions & lettuce.
Karen & I prepared two beds for winter/fall crops and we managed to get a row of chard and a row of kale in before I had to leave. Those two rows are also back by the pine trees, marked with single strings next to the beans.
Fall crops now include red mustard, Brussels sprouts, spinach, kale & collards.
Rennie needs us to wind up any lost string so that machine blades don't get tangled in them. It ruins the machines. We can mark rows and beds, but he has to pull them up to work around them with any kind of machine. We tracked down most of the stray strings, but wind up or use whatever you see on or in the ground.
I will be there for the usual Farm Friday this week, figure 9:30 to 1:00. weeding, harvesting, etc.
NEXT FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 5th, we will have 6 Union College freshmen working with us from 1:30 to 4pm
as part of their orientation. I'll figure to be in the garden 12:30 to 5pm. instead of our usual morning time. I need some help to supervise or work with the students.
Which reminds me - if your church, synagogue, or other service organization is interested in working with us for a day or a part of a day, please put them in touch with me. Putting the garden to bed in the fall is a big job that requires many people on multiple days.
We also need to raise some money or find funding to plant winter cover crops to improve our soil. Healthier soil generates healthier plants and makes it harder for pests and other problems to get a foothold. Ideas for how or where to get some funding for that?
As fall starts up, I am figuring we'll put in some weekend and/or evening work times, although I can't supervise all those times. Let me know if you can cover some work times. I'd clarify what needs doing ahead of time, but you need to be able to bring some tools. Maybe two people could share being in charge of a work time - one with tools, one with either some know-how or confidence in plunging ahead with what you know. We need to post work times a week ahead so people can plan.
If Fridays or other regular group work times don't work well for you, check with other members and find someone who likes to work when you do and trade contact info. I am not making our contact list available to people in order to maintain privacy, so talk to people yourself to see what you can set up.
One other task that needs doing - we need a real map of our garden, fairly accurate as to size and placement of beds. A hand-done one would be an excellent start. We could then transfer it to our Kitchen Gardens International page, enabling us to keep track of a lot of information over time, which would be fantastic!! There's a definite learning curve involved. I can't say I've gotten very good at it. Any web hot shots in our midst?
And, per usual - MORE PHOTOS ! !!
I think that's all for now. I hope to see you Friday. Lunch about 12:30.
Cathy