Salad Days of Summer
The heat is on
Every year we build a tsunami of lettuce. Steadily growing successions starting in March to larger and larger plantings. The waves are crashing, and the heads are beautiful, bountiful, and strong hearted. Planting every two weeks means we are harvesting one crop just ahead of the next being ready. Salad surfers they call us.
The greens machine has been instilled in me ever since I started growing professionally. While working with my mentor, Rich Pecoraro current owner of MASA Seeds, we would make the infamous Hearts and Souls Salad Mix every week for market. Taking whole heads and chopping the outer leaves down to expose the blanched hearts of lettuces, triple washing, and spinning dry was our weekly hustle. All these heads came from locally grown and adapted seed
The mix lives on though I have modified it for Folks Farm. We use whole heads but cut them in field rather the wash station. Our version of the Hearts and Souls still contains some varieties stewarded from local seed we grew nearly 10 years ago. We have added a few commercial lettuces as well but remain true to our roots. Recently we started doing a Cut Gems mix exclusively comprised of gem lettuce hearts, to die for.
I am not sure about anyone else but are the pest insects worse this year? everywhere I turn I am finding something eating our lunch! Working in organic systems pest pressure is a battle, but I have never had such pressure. Slugs, flea beetles, cucumber beetles, and aphids are the worst, but the cabbage moth larvae are not far behind. Hopefully our customers understand that if a leaf doesn’t have a few munches, I would be skeptical as to its raising.
Integrated pest management comes into play, and I have neglected to plant enough flowers this spring. We just put about 2000 flower plugs into our field this morning for bouquets later in the season. I am realizing more intention needs to be put towards these revenue streams, especially in our greenhouses moving forward.
Garlic is a crop unaffected by pests. The crop this year is coming along and just started harvesting garlic scapes! This lets us know we are only 3-4 weeks away from harvest. A huge milestone in that this garlic will keep our customers fed well into winter. It also marks the first bulk harvest letting us know the seasons shift back towards cooler temps.
Farm News
The Farm Stand is up and running better than ever. We have a quality selection of fresh produce, along with an ever-increasing supply of goods from other vendors.
Hours: 10-6pm Wed-Friday, 10-4pm Saturday and Sunday
Hopefully stocked this week:
Greens: Hearts and Souls Salad Mix, gem lettuce heads, kale, chard bunches, spinach
Roots: Radishes, turnips,
Veggies: Sugar Snap Peas, rhubarb, garlic scapes,
Herbs: Oregano, mint, thyme, sage
Plant Starts: Flowers, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, squash, hanging baskets, strawberries, herbs, perennials, and more! ALL ANNUAL FLOWERS AND VEGGIES 25% OFF at the Farm Stand
KREAM Kimchi, Jodar Farms Eggs, Rey Atelier Home Goods, Bread Chic Sourdough, Fox Den Coffee, Owl Tree Farm Worm Compost, Bee Squared Apiaries Honey, Abuelita’s Hot Sauce, Christie Leighton Jewlery
Events Calendar
June 16th 9-11am- Father’s Day Egg Toss! Bring your buddies (big or small) to a family fun time. Cash prizes to the winners in two categories. One with a chosen partner, the other a random partner. The rules are simple and the stakes are high. Catch the egg, take a step back, last pair standing wins. Just in there will also be a cherry pit spitting contest as well!
June 23th 1:45-2:45- Rocky Mountain Farmers Union Farm Hop. Tour local farms, enjoy a BBQ, connect to your community! See you there.