Volume 24, Week 12

Full share & 💫yellow💫 half shares

218 Gates Avenue between Classon and Franklin
(IMPACCT Brooklyn at the Gibbs Mansion)
5:00 to 7:30 pm

A few late August updates -

  • If you ordered maple and grain shares for the August distribution, please pick them up this week. Please note, a few grain items will not be available this month. We will make these items up in October if possible. If you ordered grain this month, we will send you more details in a separate email. 

  • Thank you for all the BAGS - we are currently at capacity!

  • Thank you to all members who have completed their work shifts! If you haven’t yet signed up for a shift, you can do so here ⬇

This week’s share

  • Squash

  • Arugula

  • Sweet Peppers

  • Tomatoes

  • Basil

  • Eggplant

  • Yellow onions

  • Green beans

  • Sweet corn

  •  Fruit: Yonder Farm’s peaches

  • Extras: bread, eggs, granola, maple and grain

The editor of this newsletter is also a county fair lover (who isn’t) - and you can visit the Columbia County Fair (where this photo was taken in a past summer) next week - a mere 3 hours away!

News from Windflower Farm

Delivery #12, Week of August 18, 2025

A Cornell extension agent has just left our farm. Our cucumbers have a disease and I’ve been stumped by it. I’m usually able to diagnose a vegetable plant disease after a few minutes with a dissecting scope, but not this time. I had dropped a note to Chuck, the agent, and to a Cornell University plant pathologist I know late last week and they decided our case was interesting enough to merit a lab analysis. Had it blown in from Canada or did it travel with the seed? Chuck had come to collect samples. Downy mildew of cucumbers had already taken out our field crop, which happens to most organic growers by the first week of August, and we suspected it was the culprit in the case of my greenhouse cucumbers. But the spots were the wrong color and the plants lacked any other telltale symptomatology, especially the dark fungal growth (sporangia) on the undersides of leaves. I was told to wrap some leaves in a wet paper towel and to reexamine them on Wednesday. I can’t wait.

A more likely contender is angular leaf spot, caused by a bacterium that can be seedborne. This fit because the spots were first detected on the cotyledons or seed leaves. A third contender, a nasty disease called scab, is also seedborne, and we’ve had it before. So, who knows? It’s my hope that incubating the pathogen in a petri dish will lead to a diagnosis. And perhaps to a plan for extending the cucumber season next year. I’ll keep you posted. In going down the list of diseases that can kill cucumbers, I’m happy that we can grow any at all.

 It’s county fair week here in Washington County and the kids in the packing shed are bouncing off the wall today. (If I haven’t mentioned it: five teenagers from the neighborhood work here on Mondays and Wednesdays packing your vegetables. They’ll be going back to school soon.) The demolition derby is tonight and nearly all of them are going. Although none of them will be showing 4-H animals, several entered artwork and will find out tonight if they’ve won ribbons. The talk today was about tractor pulls, maple milkshakes and fried dough. It’s easily this agricultural county’s biggest happening all year, and I’m looking forward to going myself.   

Have a great week, Ted

Recipes

Seems safe to use the oven this week! Try a tomato pie, corn pudding (could skip the jalapenos and sub basil for a milder version), or ratatouille!

Did you know? Our website has recipes, food storage tips, and information about the vegetables you might come across in your share!

 
Veronica