Rehoboth Homestead

I surprised you with tomatoes Friday, and you surprised me by not taking all of them in the first half hour. When I don’t have enough of things for everyone, I make it an “either or” selection. So, this week it was the first summer squash (scallopini, Zephyr, yellow straightneck, and zucchini) or the first tomatoes. You were all considerate of your fellow members, and showed great restraint. This is indicative of the community spirit in a CSA, and it gave me great confidence in you and let me relax some as I strive to be sure those who come late in the day have as good a choice as those able to come early.

The photo shows where the tomatoes came from – our hoophouse. Yes, they are taller than I can reach. When the first trusses of tomatoes down low are harvested, I will lower the twine they are trellised on, and/or let them bend over the top wire and come down the other side.

The field tomatoes are still way behind schedule with our cool, cloudy weather. The hoophouse tomatoes are even a couple of weeks later than expected. I started the hoophouse plants in February, and planted them into the ground in the hoophouse April 15 or 16. Yes, they are planted in the ground, but I have landscape cloth between the rows to make it easy to keep cleaned up for disease prevention. Last week I admitted that the cauliflower was the nicest I had ever grown, and I admit also that these are the healthiest looking tomato plants I have grown. I am not sure what made the difference. They were even unusually robust when in the 4″ pots. I don’t know if it was the bottom heat they got for the first time this year, or the extra fish fertilizer, or the new microbial inoculant added to their potting soil. The early fruitset had been phenomenal, but they were looking a little peeked two weeks ago, with yellow splotches on their lower leaves indicative of magnesium deficiency, and maybe the beginnings of the curse of hoophouse tomatoes – leaf mold. I broke down and sprayed them with a mixture of Epsom salts for magnesium, Serenade microbial fungicide for the leaf mold, and fish fertilizer for anything else they needed. “Commercial” tomato growers fertilize with the irrigation water all season. I have not fertilized except at planting before. I think I will work to make time to give them a couple more boosts this season because they certainly responded nicely to it.

We thankfully still have no sign of late blight. Apparently it is all around Clinton and Essex counties, but not much in Peru. There is an excellent article about late blight in the New York Times. We are hoping that since rain doesn’t get in the hoophouse those tomatoes will be safe, and I have enough plants in there to keep you supplied. However, the hoophouse also stays damper longer in the morning, so if spores blow in rather than dropping in the rain, ??

I am hearing about more formulations of copper that are approved as organic fungicides against late blight, so will try to find some on the field tomatoes. Copper can accumulate in the soil to unhealthy levels, and since the hoophouse doesn’t get winter’s rain to wash things through I will only use it on the field tomatoes. I called the major distributor in the region twice and left messages, but I suspect they are swamped supplying the big guys and haven’t bothered to get back to me. I am hearing about some that may be in regular stores or that I can get from Gardeners Supply in Vermont, so will do that for the field tomatoes. I pruned the field tomatoes severely to reduce foliage so it will dry quickly and so I can get decent spray coverage with the copper. The potatoes are way too lush for me to get good coverage with my little wand sprayer, so we are taking our chances with them.

Several of you have offered to come out and get your hands dirty. I have lots of plants started for late summer crops, and they are at the perfect transplanting stage and I could use some help. I lay drip tape down in the row and turn it on long enough for it to make circles of damp soil every 6″. Then we plant in every other circle (lettuce and Napa cabbage) or every third circle (broccoli). The dill and cilantro also need some hand weeding right in among the plants. I cultivated between the rows, but weeds right in the row are left. With the soil moist it is easy to pull them, and I have two really nice little hand trowels that slice off weeds easily. If someone wants “standup” work, there is some hoeing to be done. Mid-morning after things dry off and late afternoon/early evening are good times, even after work, for a couple of hours. Tuesday anytime looks good, Wednesday early evening, Thursday and Friday anytime.

New this week for you is Early Jersey Wakefield cabbage. This is an old, old heirloom cabbage with wonderfully tender, sweet leaves. It is one of the easiest cabbages to use as wrapper leaves, but also makes great steamed cabbage with a little butter, or slaw. They are generally a small cabbage, but some of them are huge this year with the cool rainy weather.

The other new this week with be new white potatoes. These are the old standby early potato – Superior. The Dark Red Norlands of the last two weeks have been wonderful. I have a later planting of them so you should see them again in a month. I walked the potatoes this afternoon and found Colorado potato beetle populations beyond hand picking, so will spray the organically approved spinosad. This is an extract from soil actinomycetes. I can only spray it at dusk since it is toxic to bees for three hours (“organic” does not mean harmless) and that stack of blue boxes on the north side of the field is our hive of bees. I time it at dusk so it will be about ten hours before the bees will be out foraging again. That is on the agenda for Monday evening. I have just not had the “spray” mindset, even with organically approved  sprays in the past. I prefer to use cultural methods such as rotation and soil building to prevent problems, or just ignore a few bugs, rather than spray. So far I have sprayed the broccoli/cabbage/cauliflower once with bT to kill the little green worms you don’t like on your plate, the ho0phouse tomatoes once, and now will spray the potatoes, and maybe the outdoor tomatoes. I don’t think I have every sprayed more than once a year, and that was the Entrust for Colorado potato beetle, cabbage worm, and flea beetles combined. This is going to take some discipline since it is so against my “style”.

There isn’t enough basil for large batches of pesto, but it is coming along nicely. I may need to harvest a couple of times Friday since I don’t want to pick more than you’ll use, or you may be given scissors and let pick your own. What a bunch of dill lovers you are. The new plantings is ready and I’ll be planting more for you. Cilantro is still a week away I think.

There are a couple of good looking recipes for squash cakes and salt potatoes in the High Mowing Seeds newsletter.   High Mowing is one of three places I get my seed from.

So this week you can expect:

• green onions
• new potatoes
• tomatoes
• summer squash
• lettuce mix
• cabbage
• choice of Napa cabbage, broccoli, or cauliflower, as long as each holds out
• basil, parsley, mint, dill
• Swiss chard. We have some kale if you would prefer.
• Hmmm. Wonder what I’m not thinking of or what will surprise me as the week goes on?

Have a good week!