Kids are headed back to school, the days are getting a bit shorter, and the weather is alternating between hot and humid and monsoons. It looks like it must be the late summer indeed. Remember those early days in the season when our baskets were all kale, swiss chard, lettuces, and more green things? This is the rainbow colored part of the season, full of reds, yellows, oranges, and greens, with purple likely to join the rainbow next week.
I really love how the subtle changes from week to week can look so big in the context of the longer growing season. It doesn’t feel like the crops are changing that much, but all of a sudden it is clear that we are getting a completely different array of produce than we were in those early weeks, save for the salad mix, which is blessedly present almost all season long. All of these changes are carefully planned by the farmers, who create extensive crop plans and schedules. They know exactly what will get planted in the greenhouse or field, when it will be transplanted, when the harvest will come, and what will go into the same spot in the field afterward. While some crops take the whole season to grow and ripen (I’m looking at you, winter squash), others dance through the fields from spot to spot like carrots and lettuces. It really is an incredible symphony of planning, hard work, and that magic alchemy of somehow producing the beautiful produce we receive each week. In short, farmers are both scientists and magicians. We would be lost without them.
Enjoy another wonderful basket of this rainbow of exceptional produce, and try to imagine each item’s journey from seed to plate in the hands of our talented growers.
Have a lovely week!
Meghan
What’s in your basket – August 11th
Carrots – Whipstone Farm
Cucumbers – Willowbrook Farm
Peaches – Gratitude Orchard
Potatoes – Sanders’ Farm
Salad mix – Willowbrook Farm
Shishito peppers – Willowbrook Farm
Summer squash – Whipstone Farm
Tomatoes – Willowbrook Farm
More delicious potatoes this week!
Have you ever seen such pretty sunflowers?
Eggplant harvest is on target for next week’s shares!
And the winter squash is growing nicely.
Shanti from Whipstone Farm preparing to mow the tallest cover crop ever seen.