This coming week is the last week of our 2021 summer CSA season and the week after that will be the first week of our fall CSA season. It’s been an interesting summer, growing wise. The two big heat waves at the beginnings of July and August really speeding things up and burned them out, breaking the usual flow. Summer squash and cucumbers are done at this point and we’re starting to get back to some of the bunch greens, although that mostly means chard at this point with the kale and collards still a few weeks away from being ready. Tomatoes have peaked, but they should keep going for a while – and if you want bulk amounts of sauce tomatoes now is the time to get them before they’re gone. This has actually been one of our best years for our sauce tomatoes ever – and in all of the tomatoes we’ve seen less blossom end rot, something that plagues our sauce tomatoes most years.
Here’s my prediction for next week’s share: sweet peppers, tomatoes, basil, lettuce, chard, cipollini onions and winter squash. The winter squash sized up super early this year and it might be a bit early to be eating it, but it’s ready to distribute so we’ll put one in the shares and you can either cure it for a bit longer on your counter or eat it now.
In the field this past week we managed to finish the plantings for the year, getting the last of the spinach and escarole in the ground yesterday. We also got a bunch of hoeing done. I can tell the soil is cooling off with the lower sun angle and cooler nights because the typical fall weed seeds are starting to germinate. A bit later in the fall I’ll welcome those weeds as they help hold the soil when the rains come, but it’s still a bit early and if we let them go now they’ll be competing with the plantings we’re trying to get to mature before growth really slows down later in the month.
Cully Neighborhood Farm 