So, how did you like the yellow watermelon??? I know those that sampled it here thought it was great. There is more this week. This is a first for me, and I am learning about ripeness. Some are over ripe, and lost their flavor except up by the rind. Probably safest to open them here before taking them home, even if you are getting a whole one. When they get over ripe, the flesh turns orangish, and spongy. From my reaction, and the reaction of others here, I think we will add yellow watermelon to our list of things we do that are especially above “average”, along with tomatoes, lettuce, sweet potatoes, carrots, gold potatoes.
Thanks to those who helped me unload Tuesday. I can think I have things pretty well under control, and then the last couple of hours of loading the truck from the cooler, eating lunch (and I really do need to eat lunch on Tuesdays), changing clothes (some folks are squeamish about me looking too dirty handling their food) takes longer than expected. The fact that it is usually after 1 before I start probably contributes a bit to the hairiness.
I really was encouraged with the number of comments I heard about the good selection. I feel bad about not having carrots and beets, but then look at the variety and know you do have enough to choose from. Someone stopped to buy beets and said they had been looking all over and no one had beets. Made me feel better too. A few zucchini are hanging on, and some yellow squash are still doing beautifully.
I started seeding fall greens this week. In the spring, maturity speeds up as the days get longer and warmer, so things we seed two weeks apart may mature a week apart or even closer. In the fall it is the opposite. Things we seed three or four days apart may mature two weeks apart. So, we will be seeding lettuce, arugula, and salad greens outside twice a week for a couple of weeks. for a week or so. Then we will start seeding in the hoophouses, twice a week until the end of September. We are starting beet leaves and a couple other things inside in some bare spots. I have taken at least half of the cucumbers out, but some were interplanted with basil, so the ground is not yet clear. Will be doing a lot more “pull out” over the next couple weeks, even if we don’t get a frost. I have more tomatoes than I can sell at a decent price, so will pull half of them out to make room for greens. I will be looking for lots of green tomato recipes for you, because we will have lots of them, and the birds are not fond of unripe tomatoes (though they go bonkers over ripe ones).
The late broccoli/kale/cabbage/etc planting is nicely weeded and they are taking off. The sweet potato vines have filled in nicely so we should be getting good roots growing. That reminds me I need to water them so we get nice roots instead of little ropes. I’ve had the water on the lettuce to keep it going well so will move it over to the sweet potatoes again. I gave them a good drenching a couple weeks ago.
The printer saga continued. Monday HP actually called me, and said they had the invoice and were sending the printhead. Tuesday night it still didn’t show on the website, so I spent about a half hour on hold. Got someone who could tell me nothing, but finally that it would be shipped after the warranty was validated. I asked to speak to a supervisor. He said the warranty had not been released yet, but he would do that and I should get the printhead within 48 business hours. Arghhhh. If I hadn’t called ???? I checked back with them Thursday. They weren’t real convincing that it had been shipped, but said I should get it within 7 business days. Arghhhh! At least I found out that the blackboard signs look good in the farmstand. I just can’t get much info on them. I need the printer to make more nice signs before Thursday when the Press Republican is coming out to do a “new business” article on the farmstand.
In contrast, I mentioned last week that our new scale had quit working unless plugged in. Actually, I had picked it up to move it and the battery door opened and the battery fell out. It hasn’t worked on battery since then. I had jiggled the connectors, etc, but figured this was probably the same as dropping the scale. But since dealing with the printer thought I’d give the scale warranty a try. The website on the printed materials from the scale was no longer valid. I emailed the online store I bought it from, nicely asking how to proceed with a warranty issue. They quickly sent me a phone number and emailed me a copy of my invoice. Nice! I called over lunch today, and admitted what had happened. No problem, they emailed me a UPS label (which I can’t print) to send it back. Nice surprise (at least so far). So they emailed me the UPS label – can’t print it without the printer, arghhh again!!!
I put this link up on Facebook last week, but for those of you who didn’t see it, here is a really nice “feel good” farmer story: https://www.youtube.com/embed/H9S3n_tILKo
And you should be able to take sunflowers as one of your share items this Tuesday.
