This week we're happy to be including Red Onions in our shares! This is the first time we've grown bulb onions from seed and at scale. We hope you enjoy!
Sorghum Crop
A few weeks ago our update talked about our 10-acre crop of Sorghum Sudangrass. The crop will add organic matter to the soil in the field, provide a cover from erosion in the fall, winter, and spring, and will also provide us with plenty of green material to add to our composting process. With some of the heavy rain and winds over the past few weeks we noticed large patches flattening out in the field. Not a problem for us and makes for some interesting photographs!
Tomato Hornworms
One pest that affects our Tomato plants are tomato hornworms. They have a surreal nightmare-fuel type look to them and they blend in very well with tomato leaves.
They aren't so numerous, so we just locate and remove them by hand, but finding them can be tricky. We help look for distinctive leaf and stem damage as well as droppings on the ground and then narrow our search.
One thing we noticed this year was that with wider doors on our tunnels (where our tomatoes are grown) it seems like birds are happy to enter. We suspect that they may be helping us with the hornworm problem though we haven't seen hard evidence of it.
The hornworms arrived a little later this year than last so we haven't had to spend as much time and effort keeping them under control. Happily since we pick tomatoes daily, we end up inspecting the plants daily too.
We had read that the hornworms would become readily visible when hit with UV light but we tried doing a sweep at night with such a light and had no success.
Food Bank Support Milestone
This past week's donation to the Kawartha Lakes Food Source was a significant one for us. Our donations of fresh produce are now over 2,500 pounds for the season, which also surpasses our total donations during the 2020 season! We still have about two months of harvesting left so we expect to see our 2021 total climb even higher.
Our weekly donations are made possible by our CSA customers who support our operation. A continued thanks to all of you who keep us going!
This Week's Share
Head Lettuce
Salad Mix
Zucchini
Salad Turnips
Carrots
Red Onion
Cherry Tomatoes
Bell Peppers