Farm & Garden Updates
Crop Updates: We are starting to offer sweet Walla Walla onions this week, which grew well and have a delicious, mild flavor. You’ll see them starting to trickle into the barn. There’s also a new crop of the compact head lettuce Monte Carlo. Another crop of beans will be ready shortly. The tomatoes plants are large and vigorous, but there is not yet ripe fruit. Some crops are not doing as well, namely the peppers and the eggplant. These plantings had promising early season growth but now seem to have hit a wall and there are not very many blooms/pollinated fruit.
Since the littleGrasse share experience is unique in the area and in the food system, we thought is was a good time to remind us all about some core aspects of the farm.
littleGrasse is not:
- A supermarket
- A farmstand like the Martins supplied by multiple Amish farms
- A curated pre paid box subscription program that offers little in the way of choice and variety
littleGrasse is:
- A community farm that allows unlimited access and encourages creative participation by our shareholders
- A living and evolving landscape with food, herbs, flowers and fruit feeding the belly and the soul
- A project that places land ethic and human relationships above all else
- A farm that doesn’t sell food but feeds people
- An educational resource for the North County
- A model for cooperation and trust
- A farm that builds soil and avoids plastic
- A farm with bumper crops, failures and everything in between
- A seed bank and pollinator sanctuary
- A farm that is still finding its way while at the same time becoming an integral part of the North Country experience.
- A labor of love
littleGrasse offers the widest and most diverse items of any individual farm in the region. We are thankful you are with us for this journey and we can answer questions anytime about our practices or goals for the farm.
Invitation to July Garden Morning
- Saturday July 29th, anytime after 9am with noonish potluck. There will be fresh pickles, plus I hear murmurings of fried zucchini!
Remember to pick up your bulk garlic by the end of the day Saturday. Notes on how to handle, cure and store here.
Tips & Flavor Notes
- Folks ask what can be included in the food waste you bring to the farm.
- YES to produce scraps, coffee grounds, egg shells, meat, fat, bones.
- NO to “compostable” utensils and containers.
- Every visit to the farm, check the whiteboard before harvesting items or taking crops from the already harvested goods.
It’s essential to check the whiteboard at the start of your visit. Not only does it list what is available and possible limits on the crop, important harvest notes are included. For the celery, only harvest the outer largest stalks (NOT the entire plant). Several full celery plants were cut near the start of the bed, please don’t follow that example.
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
- Beans
- Bulb fennel
- Celery stalks
- Chard
- Cucumbers*
- Garlic
- Head Lettuce*
- Flowers including Bee Balm, Calendula, Celosia, Cleome, Coreopsis, Cosmos, Echinacea, Feverfew, Gaillardia, Lilies, Salvia, Sunflowers, Tithonia, Zinnias
- Kale- 3 varieties
- Onions*
- Spinach*
- Scallions
- Summer Squash
- Zucchini
Culinary and Medicinal Herbs
- Anise hyssop
- Bee balm
- Basil
- Bronze leaf fennel
- Calendula
- Cilantro
- Dill
- Lavender
- Lemon balm
- Lemon verbena
- Mint
- Oregano
- Parsley
- Rosemary
- Sage
- Tarragon*
- Tulsi holy basil
The luscious bloom of the bottle gourd, which is flowering near the greenhouse.
Here’s to a fruitful August,
-Bob and Flip