We are in a constant state of exhaustion that is typical for July. Our home would be a wreck if my mom had not been out this weekend and helped bring it back under control and we are scraping around for food at each meal. It is this time of year when the farm acts much like a room full of children all demanding your attention at the same time and all threatening some kind of demise if you do not make it to them on time. We finally received some rain last week, an overall blessing as we had been devoting much of our time to irrigating and trying to keep things from drying out. However, the timing of the rain has not been great for our onions, which were just starting to fall over and be ready to harvest and were vulnerable to getting moisture in their tops, which means that as we race to get them out of the ground, we are seeing some rot thanks to the rain. Yesterday we began the process of harvesting these onions which will be cured under fans in an empty old barn and then put into cold storage so we can eat them all fall and winter.
The rain also helped our sweet corn to get ready and boy did it. Now everything is ready at once. We will see how much we can spread it out but if you get more sweet corn than you can use, you can freeze it. Just cut off the kernels and put it in a freezer bag! It is a very big challenge to grow organic sweet corn and it is not something you can find readily available because of that. We have been working very hard to try to keep this corn as free of bugs as possible but now that it is ready the corn worms received the message as well and moved in. You will probably see a worm on many of the tops of your corn ears that you are getting in the share this week. They are perfectly harmless, just chop off the top and enjoy the corn. It is really truly fresh and delicious.
We continue to pull cucumbers and squash from the field and melons are not too far behind. We seeded more squash and melons in the greenhouse this week for later summer.
Kevin has been cleaning up the early fields this week, saying goodbye to the beds of early greens and such and tilling them in along with any weeds that may be starting to creep up near them. Today while everyone else is harvesting he will be out cultivating fall cabbage and squash that has been planted in the field recently. If we finish our harvest on time we will head back to the onions and race to get them dry.
