It was not the subject of last week’s missive, but I would be remiss if I failed to tell you more about
our first group harvest of the season.
By group harvest I mean an activity that requires the participation of every available resource on the farm, an activity necessitating everyone’s full focus, a sense of urgency and an almost military execution. You may already have guessed it : I am referring to our garlic harvest, of course, a vegetable appreciated by almost all, planted yearly in the fall and pulled from the field in late July.
The rain of the last few weeks had us worried
that the garlic might be damaged by a fungal disease of one kind or another which would have deleterious consequences for its conservation. Fortunately, none of our fears have been confirmed; our 2023 garlic is beautiful and there are no indications that it has suffered from the excess humidity, quite the contrary. As soon as it was harvested, the garlic was transferred to our big red barn, laid out in all its splendour on every flat surface available where it is now quietly drying under the curing effects of the breezes that flow through that hallowed farm building. We’ll be sending a special communication shortly to start taking your conservation garlic orders; meanwhile, in a week or two – the time required to clean and prep the garlic – we’ll also be offering some in your baskets.
Speaking of baskets, this week’s draws us firmly into the thick of summer:
eggplant or peppers, early tomatoes, cantaloupe, beans, summer squash, a still-to-be-determined leafy green, fresh onions, possibly the first sweet corn (provided it continues to sweeten just a bit more by Wednesday morning), and more. A side note on our cantaloupe: I must apologise for its lack of sweetness. We would have preferred a sweeter fruit, but July just wasn’t sunny enough. The aroma is good, but the Brix levels are sub-par…We still have high hopes for our watermelon, though, which we will be harvesting shortly.
We look forward to seeing you all again.