We seeded the fall crop of carrots and beets this week, which is the fourth and final planting this season. Some great summer goodies on the July horizon include fresh garlic, many blooming flowers, zucchini, summer squash and cucumbers. The You Pick Flower Share is starting soon, which runs from mid-July to mid-September, so you may meet some new folks in the gardens.
The heat shortens the harvest window for greens (because the plants change gears and want to start producing seeds). We will have a lull in spinach for a few days while waiting for the next bed to mature.
It’d be a delight to see you at the next Garden Morning with potluck on July 29th!
We’re hosting a lively workshop next week in partnership with Cornell Cooperative Extension. Share the news with friends and anyone might like to explore the herb areas with other community members and Master Gardener volunteers.
Find more info and register here: https://stlawrence.cce.cornell.edu/events/2023/07/11/growing-culinary-herbs
It was a pleasure to meet several new students to the area, we are a community placement in the Higher Education Opportunity Program (HEOP) at St. Lawrence. For their first day we wandered the gardens nibbling on everything from carrots and peas to gooseberries and nasturtiums. We ended in the herb and perennial area to harvest mint, lemon balm and calendula flowers to dry.
Tips & Flavor Notes
- Harvesting in the morning or evening during hot days is easier for you and will help the crops (especially greens) last longer once you bring them home.
- Farm fresh celery is here. Unlike in the grocery store where you buy the entire plant, at littleGrasse you will harvest the largest outer stalks. This will extend the harvest season significantly as the plant will continue to grow new stalks from the center.
- Thank you to the folks bringing your food scraps to the farm! It’s a joy for us to engage in the alchemy of mixing lots of plant material together and returning the finished compost back to the soil. There’s more food waste buckets available in the share room.
The snow pea (left) and the snap pea (right) both have edible pods. When harvesting, remember to scout the whole plant to find the largest pods. Snow peas will have a flat section and some bulging but not massive peas. When snap peas are at their peak flavor, they are a bit rounded and the pod is bright green (not dull or whitish which is overripe).
Snow peas are fabulous in every stir fry!
Crops Available
This list and availability are subject to change, check the share whiteboard at the start of every visit. If you are unsure about how to harvest: ask us! In person, via text or email.
Cell phone numbers, Flip: 315-854-5399 and Bob 315-854-5395.
*Asterisk marks crops added this week
- Beets
- Bulb fennel
- Carrots
- Celery stalks*
- Chard
- Green garlic
- Head lettuce
- Kale- 3 varieties
- Lettuce greens
- Radicchio
- Rhubarb
- Snow or snap peas*- limited quantities
- Scallions
Culinary and Medicinal Herbs
- Anise hyssop
- Bee balm*
- Basil
- Bronze leaf fennel
- Cilantro
- Dill
- Lemon balm
- Mint
- Oregano
- Parsley
- Sage
- Tulsi holy basil
We visited the second annual Juried Art Show at Akwesasne last weekend where there was a breadth of incredible pieces across mediums including bead work, basketry, painting, carving and much more. This piece was done by Kaiahtentas Thompson.
Swimming season,
-Flip and Bob