Dear KCSA community,
I feel it prudent to give the members a veggie update this week, so, for those who remember, perhaps we’ll pick up where we left off with last week’s newsletter, next week….
We managed to squeeze in a special treat on the share Friday—shishito peppers and tomatoes! Over the next few weeks, we should see some more tomatoes and peppers.
Shishito peppers are a Japanese frying pepper. They are a few inches long and are generally harvested when green (although they can be harvested red as well). As the name suggests, they are frying peppers, but are more often skewered and grilled. The skin and flesh are very thin and blister quickly, for an easy chargrilled delicacy. An old farmer’s tale is that, 1 in 100 are hot. I’m not sure I believe it as I think I’m in the centurion shishito eating club and have yet to have a hint of non-grilled heat in ‘em!
Although many of our tomatoes may look like heirlooms this season, we technically only have one (the Speckled Roman paste tomato) available due to some…you guessed it…problems in spring. After spending lots of time nurturing our wide variety of heirlooms, they literally turned brown over night! We lost several of our favorite open pollinated varieties, too—the difference between an open pollinated and heirloom variety is age! In fact, all heirlooms are open pollinated but not all open pollinated tomatoes are heirlooms. Further, the word heirloom would appear to not follow the rule: I before E except after C!
Anyway, as we do follow the mantra “hope for the best, plan for the worst,” we did have some spare hybrid seedlings ready to go as back-ups. So, this season we will have heirloom Cherokee Purple and Brandywine lookalikes, called Cherokee Carbon and Martha Washington; a big, juicy, orange slicer called Marmalade; and, according to Jo Robinson’s Eating on the Wild Side a red “medium-sized, globe-shaped, mild flavored…high in antioxidants,” tomato named Jet Star.
In addition to the solitary heirloom Speckled Roman, and our go- to red paste tomato Granadero, this year we also have a yellow paste tomato called Orange Banana. We also have a wider selection of cherry tomatoes coming to u-pick. Members will be please to know that we ditched the determinates and have gone back to the indeterminates, so the cherry tomato harvest season should run right up to the first frost. Fingers crossed!
Leeks will also be on the share this week. These are being harvested a little premature as we need the space. Hopefully, members will be able to tell the difference between the mild leeks and the more pungent scallions. If in doubt, the leek greens are trimmed, and a little darker and flatter, than their more oniony counterpart. This second flush or scallions replaced our white bunching onions that were decimated in spring by the corn maggot. A good decision, you’ll agree!
The Euro cucumbers are done for the season. Picklers are winding down and so are the slicers. The summer squash and zucchini are also starting to slow down. They’ll be on the share for a few weeks yet, but in less abundance. There should be more zucchini and cucumbers toward the end of summer, however, members should consider that the last planting will not be as productive as the first!
We have had a good 8-week stretch of head lettuce (yes, we’re only 8 weeks in!), but in this heat they tend to either go into thermal dormancy or go to flower (bolt) really quickly. We will continue to sow, transplant, cultivate and water them, but during the end of July through August, they won’t be nearly as consistent.
The kale is suffering in this heat as well and there will be a break between the spring and fall planting soon. The beets and carrots are done until fall. We are sowing the next succession soon, so plan on their return in October.
Cheers,
Andrew
