Do you like our beets? Our beets like you.

Farmer John Writes . . .                                                                                              

Greetings from Angelic Organics,

Weather & Water

Thunder and lightning teased us this last weekend, but we continue without rain. Our farm is a lush irrigated oasis surrounded by neighboring fields of wilting corn and soybeans. The winter wheat scattered about the vicinity is already harvested, the earliest I remember it ripening.

The Crops

Primo and I did a tour of the fields recently, looking for areas that need mechanical weeding. We found only a few, maybe 40 minutes worth of tractor work for him. It’s great to have the fields in such good shape, because Primo always has other work to do: trucks to maintain, doors to repair, a cultivator to build and refine, buildings to paint, hydraulic seals to replace…

Garlic

Last week we harvested the garlic, a great crop of very large bulbs, now curing in a shed. We parcel it out slowly into your boxes, so that you can enjoy it throughout the season.

Zucchini & Cucumbers

Both zucchini and cucumbers are coming on fast with the heat (and irrigation water that we provide.)

Sweet Corn

We planted an extra field of sweet corn this year, to extend your sweet corn season an additional week. The corn is beautiful, about a week ahead of schedule. The first field is already tasseling.

Heat & the Crew

Imagine your farm team in the recent heat, bending, kneeling, lifting, lugging, bunching, washing, and trimming. In this age of air conditioned workplaces and ergonomic chairs, they endure the dust and sun, the wind and bugs, to make sure you get your vegetables on time week after week. Sun hats off to our crew!

Farming is Interesting

At Angelic Organics, we continually wonder, question, examine. It is an endlessly fascinating process. How much? How big? How little? When? Where? Harvest it now because the heat will make it bolt or will it hold up until tomorrow? Irrigate the transplants today or will it rain tonight? Build the fence around the sweet corn now, or do we have a few more days before the raccoons ransack it? Will it make enough of a difference if we inoculate the seed to create more diversity in our soil’s microbial life?  Should we add a little grass to our alfalfa clover mix for soil vitality? Do we spend extra dollars in labor to get all of the weeds in the squash fields, just so we can behold their immaculateness in late summer? Should we hire this very pale applicant who might not be able to endure the beating sun?  Do we fix the roof even though there’s not enough money? Do we buy a new delivery truck before the old one wears out? How many beds of beets should we raise? Do we continue to raise corn, beet and squash transplants in the greenhouse, or do we seed them directly into the fields? Yes, farming is endlessly interesting.

Please Note: this summary is written before you receive your box—please be aware that some guesswork is involved. As always, be sure to thoroughly wash all of your vegetables.

Brassicas – 1 bulb of kohlrabi, maybe a cauliflower
Fruiting Crops –  2 or more zucchini
Cooking Greens – bagged young chard & bunched Kale, maybe Tatsoi
Alliums – Scallions
Salad Greens – 2-3 heads of lettuce
Root Crops – 1 or 2 bunches of beets
Herbs – bagged cilantro