I have one variety of heirloom tomato in the field that seems to be holding up. All the others are gone. I don’t want to jinx it by mentioning its name. I also haven’t decided whether to truly test its resistance and leave it be, or start treating it with the copper hydroxide fungicide to try to help it along. So far the hoophouse tomatoes have not shown late blight, though a fellow grower in Willsboro said they got it in their hoophouse tomatoes. I have two potato varieties vying for the title “last” to succumb, and I hope they tie as resistant to late blight.
Probably my main problem with late blight right now is just the time it takes to stop it. The potatoes are easy and quick – mow them. Two more potato varieties bit the dust this week – two rows of Austrian Crescent and a row of French Fingerling – both heirloom fingerling varieties. The tomatoes are another story. We can’t just mow the tomato vines to get a quick kill and stop the late blight. They are trellised. First we have to get the twine out, then the irrigation drip tape, then the wire and fence post trellis. Then we can mow. So far I have been pulling vines and just letting them hang, or cutting the twine off and pulling the vines and tossing them aside. But this takes time that I need to be putting into fall crop planting.
Today I got a little sense of how the Irish must have felt when the potato famine hit. . Only a hint of their feelings, but I had planned to give you lots of green tomatoes, with salsa verde, fried green tomatoes, etc recipes, and we had quite a few ripe tomatoes out there. But very few were salvagable. Most were showing signs of the rot, and some were downright disgusting. I kept reaching for what looked like a good tomato, but turn it over, or look on the side, and it was rotting. I could begin to feel the sense of hopelessness imagining these being potatoes that were my mine food. Thank goodness we are not looking at it as a literal starvation issue. The Irish Potato Famine must have been truly fearful, but so far from our experience that we can’t really comprehend it.
Our other major activity of the day was splitting the bee hive and putting three new queens that came this morning in the mail with them. Hopefully we will have four good hives going into winter now. We divided the frames that had pollen in them, the frames that had larvae, and the frames that had honey among the four hives. The queens are in little cages with a couple of nurse bees. There is a plug of sugar candy in one end. In theory at least the bees will adjust to the new queen while eating the sugar plug and releasing her into the hive in a couple of days. We’ll have to check Sunday and take the plug out of any that are still caged.
I love the UMass vegetable email updates. It seems like everytime I think I am doing something wrong, their crop update talks about it being common. This week’s tomatoes aren’t beautiful. They are showing uneven ripening – partially red and partially green. Also some are splotchy with hard light green areas. I thought it must be a fertility issue but apparently it is a weather issue, and is common this year. Whew!
I have an entire rotation block that I planned to have as u-pick. We have ended up picking it for you, but this week we have green beans, and they will be u-pick. We have a few folks recuperating from leg injuries, so it would be great if a few of you get into the swing and pick a double portion. My plan is to flag out 10 foot sections for each of you.
We have fresh chicken this week. And I have eliminated the 50 cent discount on eggs that I have given at the house for years. Feed cost has gone up again, and the easiest way to recoup that is to raise the “at home” price to the farmers market price, $4/dozen. Still not making minimum wage, but they do contribute to the ecology of the place. And this is a good time to reserve a fresh duckling for next week. We did four this week and sold them all within the first hour of market. Tony plans to do about 15 next week, but still, if you want one, let us know. The females have been about 3 lbs, aroun $18, and the males have been about 6 lbs, around $36.
Oh, and a little warning. I am not a hot weather person, and tomorrow is supposed to be hot. Please forgive me if I a bit grumpy. I tend to melt into an impatient amorphous blob when it is hot. Maybe the shelter will be pleasant. I was amazed at the difference a little shade and breeze made today. Other than that warning, I look forward to seeing you and hope you have a good day.
