It's already the middle of July!
The days are getting shorter, farmers are rushing to cut, dry, and bale their hay, all while dodging pockets of rain.
Right on schedule, our cucumber plants are starting to succumb to the relentless onslaught of their namesake beetles and the bacterial wilt they carry with them. Some plants have died and been removed, others continue to produce but their days are numbered... But as one variety of Cucurbit passes, another enters it's prime. Our Zucchini plants are benefiting from the recent burst of heavy rain and our aggressive pruning and you'll be seeing them in shares very soon!
Experimental crops
Every season we add some brand new varieties to our growing plans. These experimental crops serve as a guide to what we may continue to grow as a regular or staple crop in future seasons.
Experiments we've run in the past but have decided not to grow (for this season) include Okra, Watermelon, and Arugula. In the case of Okra - it simply wasn't popular among our customers. Watermelon is sensitive to cucumber beetles and suffered low productivity as a result. Arugula is very aggressively attacked by flea beetles and is not happy in hot temperatures.
This season we have a number of new things growing at the farm including celery, haskaps, and leeks.
Our celery seems to be doing quite well! It was started indoors and transplanted in the spring and has flourished since. We haven't seen any insect pressure or damage, so we've just had to keep them watered and weeded. You can expect to see celery in shares in a few weeks!
Leeks have been another successful experiment so far. Like celery, they take a relatively long time to reach their harvest point, but they've done well and aren't subject to issues with pests. In fact, we've planted our leeks (and other alliums) in a pattern throughout the garden to form a perimeter around lettuces and other crops. Alliums are said to help repel some pests so we'll take all the help we can get.
Haskaps are a plant you may not have heard of. They are a bush that produces berries similar in colour to blueberries, but have a flavour that's more sour and tart. We only have a few small bushes as part of our experiment but we've seen berries form and the plants are doing well. Bush type fruit bearing plants are a longer term crop as they take multiple seasons to establish but planning at different timescales (beyond the current season) is a crucial part to building a functioning food production system.
A Successful Garden Tour
This past Saturday was the Bobcaygeon Garden Tour. The weather was perfect and the day busy.
We saw several hundred people at the farm come and tour our vegetable gardens - including a coach bus full of people!
A big thanks to the Bobcageyon Horticultural Society and all the volunteers who made the event a success.
Fenelon Falls Farmers' Market
Another friendly reminder that tomorrow (Friday, July 15th), we'll be attending the Fenelon Falls Farmers' Market from 9am until 2pm.
Let us know how we're doing
Is there something we can improve upon? Do you have any ideas about how we could do better? We carefully consider every piece of feedback we receive. It's a tremendous help for us to know what you think - good or bad.
If you ever have an issue, question, concern, or comment that you'd like to tell us about, our feedback form is available and anonymous :).
Follow the link below to share your feedback with us!
This Week's CSA Share
Salad Mix
Head Lettuce
Cucumbers
Chives
Beets
Carrots
Swiss Chard
Additional Item :)
Food Bank Donations
So far this season we've donated over 700 pounds of fresh produce to our local food banks!
Most of our donated produce goes to Kawartha Lakes Food Source, a fantastic charitable organization that distributes to many food banks within Kawartha Lakes.
We also make direct donations to the Fenelon Falls Salvation Army, Bobcaygeon Food Bank, and the Kinmount Salvation Army Food Bank.
A big thank you to all of our CSA customers who support our operation and make this possible!