A big thank you to the team and all Drumlin staff involved in making this weekend’s strawberry pick-your-own event a huge success. People picked berries all the way until closing time thanks to spring rains, timely weeding, and our fabulous soil. A special thanks to volunteer Anna who helped Erica assist the hundreds of customers. A sudden thunderstorm struck towards the end of the day, and Erica gave up her spot under the tent’s shelter to take an amazing picture (below). On the same day, at market, Veronica, Maddie, and Jill did an outstanding job selling almost all we had harvested, including over 300 more pints of strawberries.
We’re trying to finish planting the pumpkin patch and the second round of tomatoes. We also need to mulch the first round of tomatoes and start trellising them. At least we found time to drive the tomato stakes during last Thursday’s steady rain. There are many other crops that need planting and weeding, but the frequent rains are causing volunteer groups to cancel, adding line after line to our to-do list. We’re bearing down and to do more and the team was out yesterday the rain trying to catch up on weeding.
The two volunteer groups that were able to come to the farm last week got rained on, but worked through it. On Tuesday, volunteers from Google’s YouTube division planted broccoli and leeks into wet ground (pictured above). They then picked peas for Wednesday’s CSA distribution. On Saturday, a group from Appalachian Mountain Club helped us weed leeks and carrots, and also plant pumpkins. Volunteers from the AMC come year after year, often twice per season, and we always look forward to working with them. Thanks all for doing great work in challenging conditions.
It’s garlic scape season! There are some at the stand right now along with this morning’s strawberry harvest. The scape is the flowering part of the garlic plant. We remove them to get larger bulbs during July’s harvest, but to my mind, the June scapes make for the best eating. They are milder and have the consistency of firm pasta when briefly cooked. When picking, we make bunches and hook them over our forearms like snap bracelets (pictured above).
See you in the field,
Your Farmers