Welcome to our 10th Harvest Week

In Farm News this week, Farmer John Writes about a Mystery Machine

Your Box

If you’re unable to pick up your box, or want to change your delivery site:

If you’re unable to pick up your box one week, we ask that you arrange to have someone else pick up for you. Make sure to forward your pickup instructions to that person, so he or she doesn’t return with a fruit box or a swap box instead of a vegetable box…yup, this happens.

For Flex Share folks–we can make changes to your Flex schedule. However, we ask that you give us 2 weeks notice in order to make the change on time.

For Full and Half Share folks–when it’s not possible to find someone to pick up for you, we can hold back your box that week. We ask for a 2 week advance notice on this. We can make this box up to you during a future delivery, but it will need to be for your scheduled pick up day/week.

For Half Shares–we cannot alternate your pick up week from your originally scheduled dates.

The Crops
Our tomatoes are subject to similar foliar problems this year as the melons, due to torrential rains and very high humidity throughout June and into July. The extent of this condition did not become very apparent in the tomatoes until the past couple of weeks. So, we will only have a pretty good tomato crop, not a stellar tomato crop. Fortunately, our other crops are making up for any tomato volume that will be lost, so your box will continue to be very full.

About tomatoes, in some years the yields have surged to such a degree that we have put as many as 19 into a box — 2 paper bags stuffed full of regular tomatoes, plus an heirloom tomato or two. We don’t intend such huge tomato yields; they just happen, especially in dry years with low humidity. (We irrigate our tomatoes with drip tape, so we never bring moisture to the leaves with our irrigation method, but we cannot protect tomato leaves against rain and high humidity.) If we had a huge tomato crop this year, they would not fit into your box, because so many of the other crops are yielding so well.

Cucumbers and zucchini/summer squash are almost done, as is typical for this time of year. We’ve had a good run with both. We have an excellent pepper crop and eggplant crop. We decided to back off on the pepper harvest this week, to let them size up more.

This week and next week will be the final weeks for corn. We’ve enjoyed a gigantic crop of very sweet corn with very large ears.

The Weather
The weather continues to be strangely cool, with nighttime temperatures often in the 50’s.

The Work and the Mystery Machine
Several years ago, former growing manager Bob Bower Skyped me in Russia and said “there’s an odd-looking thing for sale at an auction of vegetable equipment nearby. I don’t know what it is.”

I said, “sounds pretty good. I suggest you buy it if it goes for under $150. We’ll figure out what it does.” (I suppose this says something about my weakness for farm machinery.)

Bob bought it and it turned out to be an onion tumbler. Well, we named it the onion tumbler, but I suppose its name is more properly onion lifter. It has a square 1 1/4 inch bar that glides along an inch or so under the standing onions while it spins very fast, popping the onions out of their bed and laying them down on the ground, where they will field cure for a few days.

Next Week
In next week’s issue of Farm News, I’ll show you the machine that harvests the onions and the wind tunnels where we cure the onions.

U-Pick Garden
Our U-Pick Garden is coming on, with beans, and flowers available now.

More from Shareholders
Visit us often at www.facebook.com/angelicorganics , where we post exciting farm developments regularly, and shareholders post recipes, tips, and photos.

Box Contents
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.

Lettuce
Chard
A Storage Onion
A Sweet Onion
A Leek
Eggplant
Cucumbers
Zucchini/Summer Squash
A Melon
Sweet Corn
Tomatoes
Hot Peppers
Parsley

Programs at the Angelic Organics Learning Center

This Saturday, August 16, visit the farm for two fun family events

Home-milked Ice cream! Saturday, August 16, 10am-12pm: Together, we’ll milk the goats, visit the beehive, and look for fruit around our organic farm. Then, we’ll make up a batch of home-grown, homemade ice cream. We’ll even get to eat this sweet treat together. Yum! $11 per person. Pre-register on our website: http://learngrowconnect.org/event/home-milked-ice-cream

Kids with Cob! Saturday, August 16, 1pm-4pm: Come cooperate with others to construct a mini eco-village while learning natural building techniques.  Use your hands to build model homes using a mixture of clay, sand and straw, called “cob”, then use your imagination to create stories about people in the community.  Perfect for kids who love to get dirty, as well as those who love building things. $12 per person. Pre-register on our website: http://learngrowconnect.org/event/kids-cob

More information and registration at www.learngrowconnect.org/events.

Sign up for a hands-on farm workshop now at www.learngrowconnect.org/events

Warmly,
Farmer John