Garlic Harvest begins....
We began harvesting the garlic on Friday. The crop unfortunately looks poor; with about 50% losses and the bulb heads are small. We do have garlic at Farmer Scotts which also has small heads, but better yields. It appears that most farmers we are talking with are all experiencing similar problems; small heads and larger than normal losses. What happened was with no snow cover over the winter, the ground froze, then thawed, froze then thawed repeatedly which actually heaved the garlic out of the ground. This exposed the cloves to the elements thereby causing their demise. Farmer Rich did cover the fields with greater than normal amounts of mulch during the winter, but this did not save the entire crop.
The garlic is now on wire racks for its drying & curing stage. It is during this time that the flavors set in.
Fruit update – we hope to start the fruit deliveries next week from Windy Brow Farm. We will be getting an update from Farmer Jim during the week as to availability, but usually the first deliveries of fruit include peach varieties.
TRIP to the FARM – scheduled for Sunday, July 20, 2008 starting at 12:00 noon. Want to help with a few projects at the farm? Come up to the farm and spend an 
afternoon in the country.
Projects we need help with include:
· mulching
· install fencing around the back field (provided all the garlic has been harvested)
please RSVP so we can plan on refreshments also send out directions.
From the Fields: Another crop of potatoes will be harvested soon. This week the crew replanted the Franklin greenhouse with yard-long beans and got beds ready for Chinese cabbage to transplant this week. Other beds were planted with lettuce & celeriac. More herbs were also planted this week, including rosemary and lemon basil. Additionally, tomato plants were planted in the big greenhouse for late deliveries.
Weather Report: The fields still remain dry, and harvesting the garlic is like pulling them from cement. Even Farmer Rich was surprised at how dry the back field of garlic was. This field is not irrigated, but it probably wouldn’t have mattered much as most of the garlic crop was lost during the winter. Our irrigation system is working well with drip lines through the beds. The water source is our pond and gravity feeds to the main hoses that the drip lines are attached to. Farmer Rich turns it on and the beds get irrigated for about 1 ½ days, then the filter gets clogged and has to be cleared. This set up is a simple yet effective use of our water without having to use pumps.
Animal report: The rabbit in-side the fence decided not to eat the remaining transplanted lettuce, but has shown an appetite for kale this week. On Saturday Farmer Rich saw a baby groundhog scaling the fence pole and it appeared it didn’t quite know what to do if it did get to the top of the fence. Fortunately Farmer Rich persuaded it to not continue its break-in attempt, but we are sure that it tried again later in the day.
Field Pix: our middle field
Farming Quote of the Week: No race can prosper till it learns there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem. - Booker T. Washington
Pick of the Week: click on the links below or to the right to bring you to the delivery specific to your pick-up location. Deliveries will be of similar variety & poundage, but may contain different items. Occasionally, some crops are ready to harvest but not enough to deliver to all our drop-off locations. What we do is start to filter them in each week to a different drop-off until there is enough to delivery to everyone.
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