With this, our 11th week of basket deliveries, the countdown has begun. Already the fields seem to be winding down…not because summer is over (au contraire, the season is at its peak), but rather because the urgency of the season’s last plantings is upon us: radishes, arugula and other fall greens — all of which need to be sown now to fill your fall baskets. These magnificently sunny days have allowed us to do some fieldwork, laying down plastic mulch for next year’s strawberries and prepping new beds for our 2016 garlic crop. While we could postpone some of these chores, worrying comes naturally to this farmer — a constructive form of constant readiness (semper paratus), where expecting the worst means a constant refusal to put off to tomorrow what can be done today. In parallel with late plantings there is much field clean-up to be done, including removal of all the plastic mulch which has already served its purpose, i.e. protecting a multitude of plants from encroaching weeds. It’s an organic farmer’s conundrum: to use labour-saving plastic mulch (which must be removed every fall and sent to local landfills), or not? It is also a political issue: despite organic farmers’ lobbying, the different government entities concerned have yet to find a satisfactory recycling solution for plastic mulch. While biodegradable plastic mulch exists, its rate of breakdown is not great, as pieces of supposedly decomposable mulch linger much longer than they should in the fields. Stay tuned.
Garlic: place your orders now! As you know, our garlic is super fresh, ideal for long-term storage under optimal conditions — i.e. a dry, cool, dark place (in a paper bag). This year’s novelty is garlic braids — three-pound tresses available in limited quantities on a first-come, first-serve basis. Prices remain unchanged from last year: $10 per pound, $22 per kilo. We are offering only two varieties this year: a bit of Ukrainian (tasty, strong, streaked with purple, 6 to 8 bulbs per head) and Music (a local variety, mostly white, tasty, with 4 to 5 bulbs per head on average). We look forward to taking your orders.