• Broccoli - Likely our last broccoli until the fall.
  
• Carrots - More small, sweet carrots.  This week's variety is called Mokum and is similar to last week's carrots, Nelson.
• Golden/Red Beet Greens -More beet greens -- a preview of the golden beets to come!

• Radishes - likely our last week of radishes.

• Dinosaur Kale - Also called Lacinato, this kale is delicious sauteed, baked, or chopped for salad.
• Lettuce - We are nearing the end of our spring lettuce, which means we likely wont have more until this fall.   This week we have our last summer crisp, Magenta.
  
• Garlic Scapes - the last scapes...really this time.
• Dill
  
• Oregano (not pictured)
  
• Mint (not pictured)
  

 

          Bring on the bugs!  The the warm weather is bringing the summer bugs out from hiding and into the garden.  The members of the Brassica family in particular are being singled out--that's the broccoli, kale, cabbages, arugula, etc. that has done so well this spring.  The list of bugs that eat Brassicas is lengthy, with several of them very difficult to manage using organic methods.  In our dedication to feeding you chemical-free food, we apologize if some of the kale is, well...holey!  As an old-timer once said, "if the bugs don't wanna eat it, why would I?"  I tend to agree, but that's coming from someone whose diet consists almost entirely of "unmarketable" vegetables.

          The Brassicas, however, are not the only plants being "harvested" early.  With the squash and cucumbers growing up quickly, the squash bugs and cucumber beetles seem to think they have a share in the CSA.  Isn't it funny that nearly every plant in the garden seems to have a pest insect named after it?  What isn't so funny is that these plant-specific insects always find their favorite plant in the garden and always eat like they've been asleep for several months--in most cases they have!

          In other news, things look pretty darn good out here.  The winter squash at Red Bud Farm has all germinated and we fenced the the 1/4 acre plot after deer tracks suspiciously started to appear.  Ellen's Melons and Berries has a field of sprouted watermelons and cantaloupes, and the blackberry bushes are completely loaded!  We have 3 varieties of blackberries for the CSA this season, and will likely be selling blackberry jam as an added product.  

          One disappointing realization this week was that our storage onions are not likely to yield as we had hoped.  Several other farmer friends are experiencing similar onion grief.  The general consensus is that the onions became too stressed from the record rainfall during the flood.  The water stress caused many of the onion plants to send up flower stalks, which they are not supposed to do under normal conditions.  This flower stalk does two undesirable things: it creates a hard center in the onion, and it typically causes the onion to rot, even if removed.  The rain also did something to cause the onions to form white scar-like markings on the green tops (you may have noticed this on the green onions, as they got just as wet).  Last season we also lost the majority of our storage onions, also for reasons out of our control.  We thought planting 4,000 onions this year would give us way more than enough.  Losing 80% of that amount will be a setback, but they can still be used as green onions throughout the season.

A few more photos: