Sooo much is happening right now. It’s that critical time of year where farmers work dawn to dusk and everything else gets put off till later. Laundry, dishes, groceries, bathing.. all come in second as we scramble trying to finish getting the seasonal crops that we only get one shot at planting into the ground- winter squash, dry beans, tomatoes, peppers, etc. Mike, Darin and John have all been on the tractors during pretty much most of the daylight hours. We’re doubling our dry bean plantings this year to about 5 acres. Sowing starts tomorrow and hopefully we’ll be done by Tuesday. Then come the winter squash and after that quinoa.
Quinoa! Yep, we’re going to try our hand at growing it again. We tried years ago and then discovered it was super bitter and inedible. We didn’t have the necessary equipment to clean it and get it to a marketable state. This year is just a trial. We’ve gotten our seed from a grower near Eureka. A neighbor will combine it for us in the fall and then we’ll take a field trip up to Eureka to put it through gravity separator and a scarifyer (the machine that rubs off the bitter coating on the outside of the seed so we can cook and eat it). We’ll keep you updated. Also new this year, we’re planting a round of sweet corn just for all of you CSA members.
The strawberries are cranking just in time for your first boxes and the ground is filling up fast with our weekly and biweekly plantings of brassicas, beets, fennel, lettuces, and more. We’re so excited to start off a new CSA season and hope we can make it the best yet.