July has finally arrived, which means that, slowly but surely our CSA boxes will change from mostly cooking and salad greens into the heavier summer crops. We will be harvesting bunched beets this week for the first time this season. There should be more Basil, Lettuce (of course), Scallions, Fennel, and one more week of Kohlrabi. We’re planning to swap the Kale out for Collards this week for a change of pace, but we still have an incredible field of Kale and it will be back next week.
We’ve really been chomping at the bit to harvest a number of crops that if it weren’t for the very cool spring really should be ready by now. Carrots, Cucumbers, Spring Broccoli, Spring planted Cabbage, Summer Squash, and the high tunnel planted Eggplant all fall into this category. From this group Eggplant and Summer Squash are on the verge and we may be able to squeeze enough out of the fields for the Premium boxes this coming week – it’s pretty typical for summer squash and eggplant to start out real light and then pick-up after a week or two. We should have Cabbage in week 6, Cucumbers and Carrots are probably 2 weeks away, also we have another planting of Escarole that is about a week away.
We are worried about our spring broccoli though, it really should be ready by now but there are just the beginnings of broccoli heads on the plants which means two more weeks. The problem with this is that when broccoli comes on in the heat of mid July there are often problems with crop quality. Spring planted broccoli is always a bit of a roll of the dice – it’s great when it works out but we never count on it to fill out the shares in case it doesn’t. It’s not out of the question that it will make it but we may have to wait for our more reliable fall harvest for broccoli this year.
This Week’s Forecast
Likely
Lettuce
Bunched Beets
Collard Greens
Scallions
Basil
Parsley
Fennel
Kohlrabi (last week of it for a while)
Possible
Japanese Eggplant
Summer Squash
Hakurei Turnips
Swiss Chard
Napa Cabbage
Coming Soon
Carrots, more Summer Squash and Eggplant, Escarole, Cucumbers, and Cabbage.
