The harvest season has arrived! Our time has shifted from projects and maintaining to harvesting and attempting to maintain! Every single day tubs are filled and produce makes its way in from the fields or greenhouses where it is washed, boxed and moved into our walk-in refrigerator or in the case of Cherry Tomatoes moved to a shelf ready to be sold (don’t store tomatoes in the fridge!)
Here are the total amounts of a few of the items harvested over the last 3 days:
Cherry Tomatoes: 518 pints
Baby Zucchini: 126.60 pounds
Snacking Cucumbers: 89 pounds
Cucumbers: 382 cucumbers
The team has managed the harvest well, ensuring produce doesn’t remain in the sun and heat too long after harvest, every thing is washed thoroughly and stored for quality and freshness.
In addition to everything here at the main farm, our fields at the Oxbow are doing well. The winter squash looks fantastic, new potatoes are coming along and we plan on harvesting the Garlic in a couple weeks. The first succession of beets and carrots are coming out of the ground. Franconia and Shawn brought back almost 90 pounds of beets and about 60 bunches of carrots on Thursday for the CSA and farm stand.
Above Shawn carefully cleans carrots and Franconia packages up the red beets for the CSA.
Next week I will be sure to include some recent photos of the Oxbow: the winter squash, Onions, Garlic, Beets, Carrots, and Potatoes, are all thriving. In addition to us farmers, we share the space with wildlife, including Bear, check out the footprints!
You can faintly see where the three way earthway seeder went through the bed dropping carrot seeds 6 days before. In anticipation of them popping up, Sam got over there to flame weed four carrot beds to take care of the fast growing weeds.
To help manage weed pressure at the Oxbow we utilize tractors as the beds in some the gardens are close to 470 feet long. After basket weeding with the cub cadet, Sam caught this video or shawn using the perfecta off the back of the John Deere.
Perfecta in Action: Building a Better Stale Seedbed
The Perfecta field cultivator plays an important role in our stale seedbed system by creating a smooth, level seedbed while making only shallow soil disturbance. After the first flush of weeds has germinated, the Perfecta skims the top layer of soil, uprooting young weeds without bringing a new crop of weed seeds to the surface. This helps reduce weed pressure before planting while preserving soil structure. By combining shallow cultivation, leveling, and seedbed finishing in a single pass, the Perfecta leaves behind an ideal planting surface and helps set the stage for healthier crops with fewer weeds.
Tickle Weeder in Action: Gentle Weed Control for Tiny Seedlings
In the below video Tim can be seen tickle weeding some of our carrots.
The tickle weeder is another tool we use to manage weeds especially in slow-growing crops like carrots. Flexible spring tines lightly comb the soil surface, removing tiny weed seedlings before they become established while leaving the deeply rooted carrot seedlings largely undisturbed. Timing is critical—using the implement when weeds are in the "white thread" stage provides effective weed control, giving the carrots a head start and reducing the need for hand weeding and hoeing later in the season.
It is all about weed management.
Pickup
Come anytime between 3 pm and 6 pm to choose your share on your pickup day.
As always, please bring your own bags or box to gather your choices.
Remember to contact us in advance if you will be unable to pick up on your day, so that we can store your share in our walk-in refrigerator to keep it fresh. You can email or call us to let us know. Thank you to all of those who have already arranged another time to pickup!
Here's what you will find in this weeks share:
Everyone gets to take something we will choose.
Full shares receive an additional 11 choices
Small shares receive an additional 7 choices.
Want some recipe ideas?
CHECK OUT THE CSA RECIPE PAGE!
Your Farmer, Sam (For Tim, Mikaela, Jeannie, Jim, Evrald, Shawn, Jav, Colin, Jaime, Wyatt, Ani, Franconia, Riley, Ridge, and Thatcher)
