Green Envy!

Saturday at Market Vanessa and Alex at Full Sun Farm had the most BEAUTIFUL arugula, radishes, kale and baby boc choi. The last couple years at this time we had kale and baby boc choi but the flea beetles and harlequin bugs have been so tenacious this season that our kale is stunted and our first succession of tatsoi and baby boc choi were completely devoured by the flea beetles. (We can’t even find reminiscent of these plants in the field.) Vanessa thinks perhaps we are simply building up our bug and disease population over the years. She is probably right so we just need to adjust some of our growing practices and keep on trying.
Sunday we were able to freeze 21 quarts of sweet corn so we have one quart each week during the winter! Several years ago we used to can corn but because it is such a low acid food one must pressure can it for so long that it ruined the flavor of our corn. Now we simply cut the kernels off the ear, put it in a pot with a little water, heat the corn through, then remove it from the pot and bag it in quart bags then finally place in ice water for quick cooling so that the corn retains its flavor and texture.
Production NOTE to myself: Cover our end of July direct seeded arugula and radishes. In addition, cover our first succession of kale, tatsoi and baby boc choi. We never considered covering it in summer because it is so hot; however it is just another thing to consider because it certainly works for Full Sun Farm! Consider planting our swiss chard on paper mulch to keep the weeds down. This might mean amending with fish emulsion a few times throughout the season but beats having weeds take over. (We should have reclaimed the bed a month ago.)