Two Feet in the Dirt

• It seems to be feast or famine with rain around here. We’ve been in and out of a near drought state since last autumn and now we’re getting about 2 inches in less than 24 hours. Honestly, at this point we’ll take what we can get, even if it’s all at once. The weeks of temperatures in the 90s seems to have broken at last and it looks like we’ll be able to enjoy some slightly cooler weather for at least the near future. 

I usually think of summer crops in two categories- early and late. All of these require warm weather and would be damaged or killed by freezing temperatures. Early summer crops include cucumbers, zucchini, and beans, which start producing more quickly and are a big harvesting presence in June and July. Later summer crops include eggplant, peppers, and tomatoes, which require must longer to reach a harvestable stage and hit their peak in August. 

Of these later summer crops, colored peppers are always the last to mature and this week we should start having some of the first bigger harvests off of our red and yellow “bull’s horn” peppers. Bull’s horn varieties of peppers have been around for a long time, but, with their somewhat thinner flesh, were beaten out by the beefier bell peppers when it came to commercial production. These peppers are long and pointed and are frequently confused with spicy peppers because of their shape. However, they are the sweetest peppers I’ve ever had. I first grew bull’s horn peppers on an heirlooms-only farm I worked at about 10 years ago. Since then, we’ve fallen in love with the Carmen variety, which turns from green to red, is remarkably sweet, and seems much more disease-resistant than other peppers we’ve grown. Last year we added in a green-to-yellow variety which we’re growing again this year. Look for these peppers in increasing quantities in the coming weeks and we’re sure you’ll fall in love with them just as we have!

See below for our full harvest list. The store will open at noon on Thursday!

Farmers Katie & Mike

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• Harvest List:

• Lettuce salad mix
• Arugula
• Onions
• Rainbow Chard
• Carrots
• Beets
• Zucchini/Summer squash
• Cucumbers
• Beans
• Basil
• Garlic
• Potatoes
• Eggplant
• Okra
• Tomatoes
• Cherry tomatoes
• Peppers