Week #4 Saturday, July 4th – Tuesday, July 7th , 2009 Downloadable Word .doc for printing

In your bag
Red Summer crisp Lettuce
Scallions
Kohlrabi
Radishes
Beets, Swiss Chard
Fennel, Broccoli
Garlic Scapes, Basil
Sugar Snap peas OR Zucchini/Summer sq.

Coming Soon
My best guess is that summer squash, zucchini and cucumbers will be ready next week. I think we’ll have purple kohlrabi and lacinato kale. If the weather holds we’ll have another head of lettuce, more scallions and perhaps turnips.

Spring Hill’s Web Site
Our goal is to make this site as useful to our members as possible. We’ve had some technological (our computer was down for a bit) and some logistical problems this year that we’re working on. Typically our newsletter will be there each week (we’re behind right now) as well as recipes from previous weeks and years, a map to the farm, what to expect on harvest/delivery days and our harvest/delivery sign-up calendar. There’s a great video there produced by members, Katy Podolinsky & Larry Schmidt that you really ought to see. We also have a bulletin board for you to post announcements or services you offer, etc. If you’d like to post something, please send it along and I will put it on the web site. Again, we’d like to make the web site useful for our membership so any thoughts or suggestions you have would be welcomed.

Farm News
We’ve put in another big week of work and we can see the light! We’re in pretty good shape for the upcoming weeks when we’ll be devoting more and more of our time to harvest.

This week’s cool weather is in sharp contrast to the heat and humidity of the week prior. We were in sweatshirts most of the week – pleasant working weather and good for extending the greens. It sure is nice to feel the sun today though and I’m sure the tomatoes, peppers and melons appreciate it.

Fall broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage were transplanted this week. It was our work crew’s first try with the mechanical transplanter. They were impressed! It really is easy, fast and works amazingly well. The final round of beets were planted in the greenhouse on Wednesday and fall carrots were planted in the field on Thursday.

This past Wednesday, my dad came out to check-in on the bees only to find that a bear had beat him to it. The bear, undaunted (apparently) by the electric fence had a hey day in the bee yard toppling the three hives of bees that lived there. My dad carefully put the hives back together. Mike repaired the fence and we’re all crossing our fingers that the bear will stay away.

Also in the wildlife department, the deer have found a couple of their favorite vegetables: beets and beans. Sunny, our happy and very sweet beagle has gone on night patrol alternating his time between the two garden sections.

Mike hurt his back earlier this week so he’s been handing off the heavier jobs to the crew, giving his back some ice and even had a stint in our neighbor’s hot tub. Hopefully by the end of next week he’ll be feeling better.

Next Week’s Harvesters
Saturday, July 11th – Lee Pfannmuller & Gary Seim, Tim & Sara Rheault, Karin Matchett, Lynne Dekker & Bernie Lindholm
Tuesday, July 14th – Brenda Beyer & Barry Schade, Athena Adkins, Pat Turner, Robin Schow, Barbara Mohr & Nancy Peterson