News from Windflower Farm - July 2, 2007

Our farm crew appears to enjoy weeding. Given the choice of any farm task, they’ll choose weeding. And that’s a good thing, because, like most small organic farms, dealing with weeds is our most time-consuming chore. Two of our field crew are teachers, who spend their summers with us, and another is a retired teacher—for them, weeding appears to be highly therapeutic. And for all of us there is a simple satisfaction that comes from leaving behind orderly, weed-free rows. But weeding can be very dull business. And our rows—most of which are 300 to 400’ long—can seem nearly endless. Fortunately, it’s early in the season, we tend to weed in a large group of people, moving quickly, and conversation and jokes flow easily. Nevertheless, distractions are welcome.

Last week one distraction came in the form of a 30 X 300’ sheet of row cover. These are large, white, translucent sheets that we place over our crops to protect them from insects and foul weather. We had removed the cover in order to harvest turnips, and left it in a heap at the end of the bed. A gust came along late in the day on Friday lifting the white fabric skyward. Soon, it was 50’ above where we were weeding, rising and falling in the wind. We watched as it sailed slowly over the hedgerow, a sea cucumber in an ocean of blue sky, settling, at last, on the potatoes in the next field.

This week’s share of the vegetable harvest includes assorted herb plants, which you might eat now or place in a pot for use later, more spring radishes and garlic scapes, a choice of salad mix or spinach, Red Russian kale, Vitamin Green, which is a green-stemmed choy-like vegetable, and the first cucumbers of the season. This year we are growing nearly half of our cucumbers under the cover of simple, unheated greenhouses. One of the reasons we decided to do so is that we wanted to protect the crop from storms, and, of course, we are very happy with the decision! You might try a kale soup, or simply sauté the greens with garlic, salt and oil. Next week you’ll receive Romaine lettuce, Swiss chard, red or white turnips, cucumbers, scallions, herb plants, Tatsoi (another relative of bok choy) and peas or summer squash.



Best wishes,

Ted