Community Supported Agriculture for the Upper Valley of New Hampshire and Vermont
2010 Week Fourteen
August 16 & 19, 2010
Good Morning Shareholders:
It’s starting to be dark in the morning when the alarm goes off on harvest mornings - yikes! I’m not quite ready for that.
Also in the not-quite-ready-for-that department: we were hit with a hail storm last Monday, just after pickups ended for the day. It only lasted for three minutes or so, and given that most of the veggies are already well established at this point, the overall damage was minor. Mostly the leafy greens were affected, and we may have a “greens gap” for a few weeks in mid-September when the damaged goods would have been harvested. You’ll also see some nicks and scratches on the rinds of the squash and melons. But this was nothing like the devastating blow of two summers ago, which came in early July, and nearly wiped out the squash, melons, and onions. Overall, we’re still in fine shape.
The hail, though small, was very angular, indicating a rapid descent out of the thunderhead, and the longer-term damage is ‘death from a thousand cuts’ on the greenhouse plastic. This won’t really matter on the four hoophouses, which I don’t think will leak from the tiny cuts, but it has caused the double-layered roof of the heated greenhouse to deflate. We’ve added this repair to the October project list, when we’ll already be working in that area as part of the barn expansion. Between now and then, we don’t really need the greenhouse to be operating at 100%, since it’s mainly being used to cure onions and squash.
On the harvest side of things, we’ve said goodbye to corn this week (wow, will we miss it!) and are saying hello to melons of all types and red potatoes. Summer squash and cukes are also done, with lettuce and arugula returning. The arugula got cuffed around by the hail, which affects the visuals more than the flavor. Other than that, look for many of the usual suspects to continue: tomatoes of all types, carrots, peppers, and onions and garlic. We’ll re-open the chard in pick-your-own and keep the beans open for gleaning, though they’re pretty well done overall. Lots of burgers and hard cheese for sale on the retails side.
See you later,
—Chuck (and Norah)