Our onion harvest is quite picturesque at this stage, with burlap bags full of onions lined up along the beds. First we undercut the onions with a tractor blade, then we pick them up off the beds and fill up the bags. We have about an acre of onions ready to be harvested, the question is, how to fit the onion harvest in between giving our attention to all of the more perishable crops that need our constant daily vigilance?
Even though it is the depth of summer around the Farm, next week it will be time to start planting our fall crops. Soon we will even be transplanting fall vegetables into the soil that we have prepared. This feels like a leap of faith, since most of the crops we will be planting are cool weather lovers, but we know from experience when the timing is right.
Knowing that the harvest is at its height from June through October, we try to build out our capacity just so that we are ready to have all systems GO at this time of year, but even the best laid plans can go haywire at the most inopportune times. That’s how it felt when in the middle of a deluge of logistical decision-making, long-working days and short-sleeping nights, we had 24-hours without any email. E-mail is one of the critical building blocks of our communication with customers and CSA members, so the need to change email providers in mid-stream rose to the top of the priority list for some of us pretty quickly. Thanks to the timely help of our IT team, the process, which could have really been a nightmare, went fairly smoothly, thank goodness!
Watermelons, basil, cucumbers, eggplants and tomatoes seem like the perfect complement to summer day. We hope that all our friends are enjoying the summer bounty.
Blessings on your meals.
—Judith Redmond
Sunset light on a summer day.
