The Beet: Volume 12, Issue 9

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THE BEET : VOLUME 12, ISSUE 9 

In this week’s BEET:

OPEN HOUSE: August 24 - 25

farm open house

  • Windflower Farm Open House August 24th-25th
  • More information in Farmer Ted's letter, below
  • Please sign-up here ASAP if you plan to attend the open house.
  • CHCSA will organize a van to take people to and from Windflower farm. More information to come.

VOLUNTEERING REMINDER 

WINDFLOWER FARM NEWS

Delivery #10, Week of August 12, 2013

This week your share will consist of assorted tomatoes, lettuce, arugula, peppers or eggplants, chiles, squashes or cukes, green beans, yellow onions and your choice or basil, dill or cilantro. Your fruit will be plums or peaches.  And your flower will be lisianthus or sunflowers. Enjoy! Look for more of the same next week, along with potatoes and the (late) start of sweet corn.

After having dug 1200 lb of potatoes last week, and sending them out on Tuesday, the gearbox on our mechanical digger busted apart. No sparks this time, it just stopped working; the gears were all stripped. We’ll be rebuilding the unit as soon as the parts come in, and I hope to be digging again by the weekend and to have potatoes in next week’s shares.  We have a good crop, and we’ve grown some unusual varieties. We’ve learned to select varieties that do well in the window between May 1st, when the first potato shoots emerge from the soil, and mid-August, at which time the foliage finally succumbs to “hopper burn,” which is produced by the lethal injection of a phytotoxin by the potato leafhopper. The insect invades the potato crop just after the second mowing of alfalfa, its preferred food, which usually occurs in late July. There are no effective biological controls for the leafhopper in the organic farmer’s toolbox. It’s one reason why large organic Russets are hard to come by in alfalfa country – they take a long time to mature, and the leafhopper usually destroys the plant before the tubers attain good size. So, we’ll send some smaller Russets, along with some interesting reds, yellows and purples.

The open house at Windflower Farm will take place on the weekend of August 24-25. Plan to arrive shortly after lunch on Saturday (most people do, but you are welcome to come earlier). You are on your own for lunch on Saturday. We'll begin with a tour of Windflower, after which you may participate in any of a variety of activities, including a salsa contest (bring your best!), cooking demonstrations by the farm staff, and a wine and cheese social hour (byo beer or wine). Dinner is potluck. We have limited means of heating food here, but we will make a grill available. We’ll provide table ware. Evening activities include music by a local acoustic trio, a campfire and stargazing. The farm is a great place to camp!  We have several grassy locations to choose from, two very nice outhouses, running water for washing and drinking, plenty of shade, and something of a petting zoo for little ones. Motels and B&Bs can be found in or near Cambridge and Greenwich (each about 7 miles away), Sandgate, VT (15 miles), Arlington, VT (20 miles), and Saratoga Springs (18 miles). The farm team will provide breakfast on Sunday morning, which will be followed by a field trip to Washington County's newest winery. The folks at Victory View Winery will give us a tour of the vineyard and offer tastings. After the tour, consider a trip to the country fair or a swim in the Battenkill.

Please RSVP with the number in your party (tedblomgren@gmail.com).

I hope you can make it,

Ted

The BeetRachael Maingot