Friday, June 22, 2012

Cambridge Farmers Market Update

Saturday July7th   we'll be at the Cambridge Farmer's Market from 8-11am or until sold out. This week we'll have the following available. 

2nd Crop Leaf Lettuce...........................$2.00/Bunch
Beet Tops...............................................$2.00/Bunch
Swiss Chard...........................................$2.00/Bunch
2nd Crop Spinach...................................$2.00/Bunch
Kale.......................................................$1.50/Bunch
Red Potatoes..........................................$3.00/Quart
Snow Peas.............................................$3.50/Quart
Beets.....................................................$2.00/Bunch
Small Head Cabbage............................$1.00/Head
Zucchini................................................$0.50/Each (6-12” long)
Dill........................................................$0.25/stem
Basil / Thyme / Mint /
Oregano / Rosemary.............................$0.50/stem

**For those who can't make it or want the ultimate in freshness, contact us about on the farm pickup or call us to place an order to be picked up in Cambridge on Saturday.**

Sunday, June 10, 2012

The War of the Weeds


What’s so wrong with weeds, anyway?  Aside from the fact that they end up making the garden look shaggier and more unkempt than a final-round contestant on Survivor, that is.  Mainly, we execute them for crimes against healthy plant nutrition - for stealing the nutrients our cultivated crops need.

To keep weeds from growing in the first place, we planted a lot of our widely-spaced plants like tomatoes and cabbage on plastic.  We rolled out four-foot wide IRT plastic rolls of plastic, then cut holes ever foot or two to plant the baby plants.  In addition to keeping weeds from growing (lack of sunlight will do that to you), the plastic has the added benefit of keeping the soil more moist.  Of course, now the south end of our garden looks a bit like a giant Hefty bag, but hey – you can’t argue with success.

For the close-together plants that we grow in rows from seed (like beets, carrots, and the various greens and lettuces we’ve been harvesting over the past few weeks), plastic isn’t really an option.  Our drip-tape irrigation system certainly helps – because we’re only watering a couple of inches on either side of the row, weeds further out than that tend to lack the water to thrive.    

But despite all the preventative measures, somehow the weed party always gets started eventually.  And there’s just no substitute for good old fashioned weed pulling.  We try to do a little every couple of days to stay ahead of it, but life is life after all, and sometimes it just gets away from us.  So we have days like today, when we spent a couple hours bending over row after row of small plants, pulling weeds with both hands until we filled the wheelbarrow!  Tomorrow we’ll bring out the grand-daddy of all weed whackers, the rototiller, to take care of the weeds in between the rows.   Tonight’s much-needed soaking rain means it will be easier to disturb the roots of the weeds and bring them to the surface where they can dry out and die.  Weeds, you’ve met your match.  Until next week, anyway.

Thursday, June 7, 2012

Absentee Farmer’s Market


We’ve filed this this under “learning by doing” and “obvious in hindsight”:  our last couple of weeks at the farmer’s market have taught us that lettuce, spinach and kale do not hold up well in the heat of an asphalt parking lot on a Saturday morning.  They crisp up nicely again after a nice spritz of water and some time hanging out in the fridge, but they just look so droopy and sad after sitting in the heat.  And it’s going to be 90 degrees on Saturday!  So we’ve decided to take a couple of weeks off from the farmer’s market, until we have a larger variety of vegetables and a better plan for keeping them perky in the heat.


But that doesn’t mean you have to miss out on your Kopp’s Crops vegetables!  Check out the sidebar on the right for a “Fresh Garden Basket” you can pick up at the farm for $10 (limited delivery available – just ask if we’re going to be in your area).  A la carte veggie purchases are also available – just email us for pricing.  And yes, we’re in the chicken business now – reserve a bird (or five) now!