Stay Cool Out There
Not much to report in the way of rain, only .1" fell on the the garden yesterday. The farm has been subsisting on micro-showers, some dewy mornings, and cloud cover but nevertheless the work continues and the harvest grows. The cucurbits are starting to come in from the field and tunnel bringing new colors and flavors [and weight] to the dinner plate. We are grateful to see this harvest, as we had tough challenges with a large cucumber beetle population through spring and early summer. These elusive, lusty, insatiable, yellow-and-black striped beetles greatly stunted our first planting of summer squash, nearly eradicated our first zucchini plants and wiped out a small majority of our melon crop. We fought back with several applications of organic controls and saved what we could, so to see some fruits after such a long-fought battle has been rewarding.
It's mid summer now and we are reaping the benefits of much of what we've sown. Our flower garden, the first succession of annuals, is bursting with vibrant colors and new blooms. Miranda introduced many new varieties to our crop plan and we are delighted to see them boasting new and interesting colors and textures. Buckets and buckets of fresh blooms were ferried to the Exeter market this past week and none came home. We hope those blooms brought smiles and inspiration to you and yours! Thank you all for coming to see us in Dover and Exeter each week!
On Saturday the team completeed yet another planting marathon - we bopped around the farm tossing in a few thousand more plugs of basil, lettuce, radicchio, bok choy, and beets. All of our garden beds are now featuring their second crop of the season. We've been diligent about recycling the beds after a crop is spent to maximize the efficiency and output of the precious garden space. As we know, the growing season in New England is very short where frost-dates never truly leave the garden-mind, so we are cramming our summer production as much as we can muster!
Thanks all for reading - stay cool out there this week!
Bridging the Gap
Feeling Generous? Want to help those experiencing hunger in our community? Want to support a small organic farm? Our fundraiser with Gather is still active! If you have the means to support our mission of bringing Gather more produce we ask that you please consider donating. Any amount is helpful! $5 could help someone get a meal. $500 would be a summer's worth of meals. To support the fundraiser, click the link below, thank you!!
Volunteer Schedule
Come help out!
If any of the following shifts work for you, please email us at FarmerJosh@RootsinReverie.com so we know how many to expect.
Have questions? Check out our post all about Volunteering at Roots in Reverie.
Fri, August 1
9am – 12pm
Sat, August 2
9am – 12 pm
Around the Farm
Small but mighty. Sweet corn! The ears didn't size up to our expectations, but that's ok they're still ripe and sweet! Available this week!
Miranda pickin' cukes in the tunnel. Sidenote, we can officially say that we use no plastic in our production. We use to run landscape fabric in the tunnels, and burn measured-out holes for the plants, but we decided against that this year - for many reasons.
Our baby carrots featured on a dish at the Carriage House in Rye. Enjoy a seaside dining experience or visit one of the other many amazing restaurants we service. Visit our website www.rootsinreverie.com to see where else we bring our weekly harvest. Have a photo you'd like to share? Send along, we are happy to feature it!
Last Thursday when it was 90-something - we had to muscle our way through the afternoon after the morning market harvest. Miranda expertly crammed Big Red full of veggies and oodles of flowers, and headed to Exeter. I was on the tractor mowing down spent crops and making room for late summer plantings, and Bria took it upon herself to finish organizing and processing the garlic crop - a HUGE task! We moved the garlic from the high tunnel where they'd been curing for the past week to a slightly more shaded storage space, where they'll continue to dry but not have to bear the direct sunlight.
A newly opened restaurant in Newmarket, Hopestill Restaurant & Winery froze some of our Calendula blossoms into their signature cubes and used a garnish in their house made Vermouth (also featuring Calendula). Way cool!
