Where are you headed on vacation this summer? We are off on our first trip of the summer season and I am so excited. I am sad I will be missing this week’s delicious basket though. Remember that you can give your share to anyone you want if you will not be able to pick it up yourself. There is no need to notify us, just pass along the pickup information and make sure your friend signs in so we know your share was picked up. This week I am giving our share to my son’s teacher and I am so happy that she will be able to enjoy this delicious produce in our place.
While some crops can be ready for harvest in a little over a month, and many others are started as seedlings in early spring and harvested later in the summer, some were planted last year! This year’s garlic crop was planted last October and onions were planted in early February of this year. It takes a lot of planning to prepare for this cycle of harvesting, planting each new crop as another is pulled from the field. Most of the fields at Willowbrook rest and are cover-cropped over the winter, and Whipstone Farm rotates crops throughout their fields all year long, but there are always a few fields that carry garlic through the winter. Once harvested, both onions and garlic require a few weeks to cure, during which they form the papery protective outer layers my kitchen floor seems to be constantly littered with. We have tried both fresh onions and garlic this season and now the cured varieties are headed our way.
Have a fabulous week!
Meghan
What’s in your basket – June 8th
Chicory mix – Whipstone Farm
Kale – Willowbrook Farm
Radish – Whipstone Farm
Salad mix – Willowbrook Farm
Summer squash beginning to bloom already!
Once the garlic is finished curing, the bulbs will be cleaned and the roots and stems will be trimmed off.
Yellow and red onions go through the same process as the garlic before they are ready for our baskets.