August: State of the Farm

So many tomatoes!

Our tomatoes are exploding off the vine, along with many of our other crops. We are averaging about 3,000 pounds of produce harvested each week at  this point in the season.  The harvest is taking up a large portion of the Farm Crew's hours each week, but there's still all the maintenance work we have to keep up with, such as seeding, transplanting, weeding, pruning and trellising, and other chores.  With a year-round vegetable farm, the work never ends. 

August is a time to begin planting fall crops.  We've already seeded cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower and other fall crops in the greenhouse and will be transplanting them out very soon.  We are planting potatoes, seeding more carrot and beets, and starting more greens such as arugula and lettuce as we anticipate the weather cooling down at the end of this month.  The Bounty of Heart's Delight is just around the corner so it's also time to think about sprucing up the farm a bit in time for the big party.

The Dig Crew program has been a great success, with the youth helping out immensely on the farm.  With them and our great summer interns, we've been able to keep up with the work fairly well.  We'll be needing more help from volunteers as our summer labor force draws down.  Each dedicated, ongoing volunteer is extremely valuable to us, and as the volunteer team grows the farm can become even more productive.  Please help fill this labor gap and volunteer - you'll get plenty of veggies for your efforts.

Mark Medeiros
Farm Director