Hello Shareholders!
Now that we are nearing the halfway point of our season, I have to admit that it’s been wonderful getting to know some of you all. A lot of you have offered some great suggestions and input about ways we can improve the distribution process, and its great to see so many people who really value truly organic food and the need to have more people buy locally. One shareholder has suggested that I request from anyone interested, some pictures of dishes with their recipes that you all have conjured up with our produce. Please email me what you have to offer, and I can make a blog post presenting these neat dishes. This would be a great way to share some of your talent in cooking, so please don’t be shy!
Below are a few photos of some vegetables and fruits that have yet to arrive so that you all can see how far along they are in the ripening process. I’ve also shared some photos of crops that we have recently harvested, with some information about the pollination and flowering process involved.
Here is a look at a still growing potato plant from a couple weeks ago. A good indicator of when to harvest this depends on how developed it’s flowers are, which this plant has yet to produce. As you can see there is the dreaded potato beetle which feeds on foliage, and even enjoys our tomatoes and eggplants!
Here is a look at our sweet corn. The tassels or male parts, are the golden tops shooting straight up on the top of the stalk (photo on left). They produce pollen which must land on the silks at the ear tips, which are the female parts (photo on right). A pollen grain must fall on a single strand of silk and imbed itself. The pollen then grows a tube down the length of a silk to arrive to the ovary, and if all goes well, a kernel is born! Each strand is connected to an individual kernel, so if you see corn with lots of missing kernels, this indicates poor pollination. The pollen is wind blown, thus most of the pollen which lands on the silks comes from tassels of other corn stalks. If you have ever grown corn yourself, you can assist in the pollination process by simple breaking off one thin branch of tassel, which has several anthers on it that are full of pollen. Simply brush the tassels over corn silks to pollinate. See photo below, which shows one small tassel with several pollen yielding anthers dangling on it.
Tomatoes Tomatoes!! Soon to arrive! This particular photo was taken at an earlier stage in it’s ripening process, but we should be expecting this awesome crop within a couple weeks. My favorite are the green zebras which we offer. When fully ripe they form some wild looking green and yellow stripes.
Recent photo photo taken of our “tirreno” cantaloupes. Due to be ready to harvest around mid September, and if you look closely at this plant you can see a slight patch of yellow. When the rinds have changed to a more uniform tan or yellow color they should be ready to eat.
References
Growveg.com