Seats down, trays carefully layered, this was one full delivery wagon!
by Amy Swanson
Volunteers from: Hancock, First Parish, Pilgrim, Temple Isaiah, Lex Catholic Community and Follen
Weather: Very light rain
Harvested: 226 pounds…Another garden record. 17 crops were delivered, including basil, beans, beets and their greens, cabbage, celery, cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplant, kale, onions, potatoes, Romano beans, squash, Swiss chard, tomatoes, and zucchini.
Many, many thanks to the dozen volunteers who showed up in the drizzle to pick, clean and weigh in time for us to deliver 226 pounds of produce to the pantry this morning. Having extra folks answer a call for last minute help ensured that we could get this bounty to the food pantry in time for pantry helpers to set it up for their clients.
Our garden delivery added a lot to the produce table
The 226 pounds we delivered this morning brings our season-to-date harvest total to 850 pounds. This virtually ties what the garden produced all of last year (854 pounds).
When we arrived this morning, Carla had plenty for us to do. About 50 pounds of potatoes had been dug up on Tuesday and they were waiting to be cleaned up for delivery. Having a few days for them to dry off left them easier to clean—rubbing them in one’s hands was all that necessary to brush off most of the dirt. Additional baskets of beans and 42 pounds of tomatoes, harvested yesterday, were ready for the weighing station. By the time the potatoes, beans and tomatoes were weighed, Mark and Lisle were busy keeping up with the stream of freshly cut vegetables being dropped off at the barn by the other volunteers. And kudos to the garden volunteer who did a terrific job in the cucumber patch, finding the 50+ pounds of the harvest-ripe cucumbers hiding in the greens.
This morning I learned more about Butternut squash. I had commented in an earlier note about the lucky timing of picking the last of lettuce from one of its beds before the squash tripled in size in a space of a week, totally spilling over the former lettuce bed. Today Carla was counting the butternut squash…20, which is about right for 3 plants. Mark and I both took a double take! The green squash sprawl was only 3 plants? Really?! The sprawl which I was guessing might be as much as 20% of the main garden?
The “green sprawl” of the butternut squash
Immature butternut…note the leaves in the foreground are starting to die.
When are they ready to be harvested? In about a month, when you see that…
- All the green is gone on the squash (not yet)
- The stem has turned brown (not yet)
- The leaves die (just beginning)
Quick primer on harvesting cabbage:
- Pull the whole plant out of the soil
- Cut free the center cabbage
- Discard the surrounding leaves in the compost.
Theresa ready with her knife