Summer Sizzles On

Rosa Bianca eggplant
photo: Sophie Shillue

Rolling into September, we're still enjoying summer weather and summer crops all week. We've squeezed in the last plantings of fall crops over the past few weeks--lettuce, radishes, arugula, bok choy. While we wait for those to grow big enough to harvest, we'll keep busy pulling in fat red tomatoes, spicy hot peppers, juicy melons, hefty zucchinis and cucumbers, and candy-sweet husk cherries to stretch out summer as long as we can.

Don't forget--Farm Fresh Yoga is back next week on Tuesday at 5:30 at the Yellow House. Bring your mat and enjoy Maureen St. Croix's excellent class while the sun sets.

Rudbeckia
photo: Meg Wilson

In your share this week: tomatoes, green peppers, the last of the eggplant (probably), hot peppers, squash, cucumbers, another melon--watermelon or cantaloupe, husk cherries, PYO cherry tomatoes, flowers, and tomatillos. We're not there yet, but the day is coming when the last zucchini of 2015 will be harvested. Don't lose your chance to make  fresh, local Blueberry Zucchini Cake with Lemon Buttercream frosting. You might regret it all winter.

Seeing red

photo: Sophie Shillue

As we're nearing the end of August, I'm happy to say our summer crops are still going strong! We've had some luck this year with some of the boogey-men of summer--plant diseases and hungry bugs can quickly ruin crops in bad years. This year however, so far, so good!

This week we're lucky to have CSA member Steve Folino and his fellow musicians of MGB Band playing at our Thursday CSA pickup! MGB plays eclectic  Americana--a mix of pop, country & acoustic jazz. They'll be on the back lawn of the Yellow House from 4-6pm for your listening (and dancing??) pleasure. See you there!

photo: Sophie Shillue

If you've been thinking that 5 lb of tomatoes each week isn't quite enough to supply your tomato sauce needs through the winter, you're in luck! We'll have a limited number of 20 lb boxes of ugly tomatoes (small, misshapen, scarred) so you can fill your pantry shelves with rows and rows of summer goodness. Email me at rodwyer@ttor.org to reserve a box at pickup.

In your share this week: MORE tomatoes! a melon, a hot pepper, green peppers, eggplant, cucumbers and squash, PYO cherry tomatoes, tomatillos, and flowers. We need any and all pint, half pint, quart containers back! We're running low and we still have a few weeks of Pick Your Crops, so if they've been kicking around your kitchen, bring them back and we'll put them to work!

A little advance notice on the next Farm Fresh Yoga at Weir River: Maureen will be teaching the next class on Tuesday, Sept. 8th at 5pm. Bring your mat and get ready for an awesome class--I'm already looking forward to it!

The sad news of the week is that farmer Sophie is headed to school and this is her last week on the

photo: Sophie Shillue; hand model: Casey Amster

farm. Sophie started here in April of 2014 and it feels like she's always been here--in fact, it's hard to imagine how the farm will feel without her. She knows the veggie operation here backwards and forwards and she's worked so hard week in and week out in the field, in the greenhouse, and in the share room. We'll miss her warm energy and snappy wit, her love of spicy arugula and pretty cloud-scapes, and her artists' eye for the curl of a cucumber tendril or the sheen on an eggplant. Good luck, Sophie, we'll miss you!

Cucumber tendril getting ready to unfurl and explore the world.
photo: Sophie Shillue

Tomato rainbow

The farm is hopping and we're hardly staying on top of the harvest these days! There's so much good stuff coming in from the field as well as new crops being planted for the fall. The best part of the last few days has definitely been this latest eye candy from Sophie, our farm crew photographer extraordinaire--

In your share this week: lots more tomatoes of every stripe, color & size! eggplant, cucumbers, husk cherries (they're delicious--you'll love them!), green peppers, a hot pepper, squash, another big bunch of PYO flowers, and of course PYO cherry tomatoes. Enjoy!

PYO Bonanza!

After a whirlwind of deconstruction and reconstruction activity last week, our greenhouse has landed in its new home on top of Turkey Hill.While the structural work is done there, over the coming months we'll be adjusting the grade inside the house and trenching in water and power. The first order of new business in there will be drying and curing our storage onion crop for the fall. We'll start

Newest baby Beltie!
photo: Ann Antonellis

harvesting that later this week, now that our garlic crop is fully harvested and up in the loft of the Red Barn drying and curing. Another baby cow was born last week and I'm happy to report that all three sets of mamas and babies are doing well.

One of our CSA partners this year is the fabulous Blue Barn Farm Share Program, a home-grown Hingham non-profit. Blue Barn is working locally on the South Shore to connect families and small farmers, addressing food access issues and strengthening our community. Blue Barn raises money to provide families with a farm food budget at a local farm, which can be used at the farm stand or to purchase a CSA share. The farms receive market rate compensation for the food that they grow and everybody wins. Support Blue Barn or find out more here.

We have a limited number of 20lb boxes of ugly tomatoes available this week. Uglies are prefect for

photo: Sophie Shillue

making sauce, canning, or freezing. A 20lb box is $20. Please reserve your box by emailing me at rodwyer@ttor.org. I'll also have ugly tomatoes available over the next few weeks if this isn't an auspicious week for you to be making sauce!

In your share this week: lots of tomatoes! green peppers, eggplant, a hot pepper, the last of the fresh onions this season (storage onions are headed to the greenhouse for drying very soon!), our good friends squash and cucumber, and a bonanza of Pick Your Own crops: cherry tomatoes, green beans, tomatillos, and a large bouquet of flowers.

A note to Tuesday shares about the PYO this week: rain/thunderstorms are predicted for Tuesday afternoon (we'll see if that actually happens.. the weatherpeople don't have a good track record of precipitation prediction on Turkey Hill). If it does indeed rain/thunder, feel free to come back on Thursday afternoon for the PYO portion of your share!

Zinnia in full bloom
photo: Sophie Shillue

Summer lovin'

This sunflower's for you, Johanna!
photo: Sophie Shillue

Our summer veggies are loving these long hot days we've been having the last two weeks! The eggplant crop is truly bumptuous and the tomatoes are finally ripening faster than the groundhog mafia can eat them. The flower patch is a riot of color and we're at a full sprint trying to keep on top of our squash and cucumber harvests. Yup, it's definitely summer.

On top of all the harvesting and weeding this week, we are seeding beets and carrots (a touch late!) and, at long last, we're moving the greenhouse. It's going from its old home next to the red barn up to the top of the hill next to main field. We can finally put and an end to much of our non-stop trips up and down the hill! Water and power will follow in the weeks to come. A big, HUGE Weir River Farm shout out to Johanna Ross for her incredibly generous gift that paid for this significant undertaking! Johanna is one of the farm's original and proudest benefactors - buying our first belted Galloway cows back when we started our herd. Thank you Johanna!!!

Farm crew Sophie's been taking some amazing pictures out in the field this past week--enjoy the eye candy!

Mmmm looks like a BLT waiting to happen.
photo: Sophie Shillue

In your share this week: red slicing and heirloom tomatoes, more fresh onions, green peppers, eggplant, squash and cucumbers, PYO cherry tomatoes and PYO flowers.

Enjoy your veggies!

Green pepper hiding under the canopy of leaves.
photo: Sophie Shillue

Fiery calendula in front and pink cosmos floating in the background.
photo: Sophie Shillue

Beautiful Italian eggplants!
photo: Sophie Shillue