Clagett Farm Notes

Many Tomatoes

There comes a day during the summer in which we harvest over a 1,000 lbs of tomatoes. When that happens we know that the tomato season is really in full swing. Well, it happened today. We picked over 1,200 lbs of tomatoes. And we definitely did not harvest all we could. Off the top of my head, these are the varieties we harvested: Big Beef, Daniella, Rose de Berne, Black Prince, German Striped, New Girl, Sun Gold, Juliet, Green Zebra, and Garden Peach. Plenty to choose from.

Twining tomatoes

Our tomato crop promises to be a good one. Shareholders already got some, but most of it is still to come. The plants are laden with green fruit, so August, once again, will be a great tomato month. To keep up with the growing plants, though, we have to twine them between the stakes. Twining facilitates and increases the tomato harvest. It's quite a chore, though--especially when it's hot and humid.

Below we see Kenji and Patti Wawzyniecki working as a team of twiners. Patti is a leader of a Young Neighbors in Action group that volunteered at Clagett Farm during this week of challenging weather.

And here is Stefan Wawzyniecki, the other leader of this hard working group, young members of St. Bartholomew's Parish in Vermont, Connecticut. They came to the DC area for a week of service work. Not exactly a relaxing vacation for them, but we were certainly impressed and grateful for all their good help.

Joe and Gail after several hours in the tomato field.

After much sweating, pulling and straining Kenji and Patti stop work to get a well deserved lunch break.

Tomato tease

A hot and humid week. Summer. Among other things, the shares now have plenty of summer squash in several varieties and the tomatoes are making a modest appearance. As veteran shareholders know, the first tomato shares are only a teaser. In the coming weeks it will increase dramatically.

A few scenes from Tuesday.

Carrie figuring out the share.

Cleaning garlic at the wash station.

Some of our tomatoes.

Cabbages under the rain

Yesterday a hard working group of volunteers from Massachusetts harvested over 1,400 lbs of cabbages. Despite the rain and the mud the Young Neighbors in Action volunteers worked hard weeding, harvesting and twining tomatoes. And today they were back at the farm for more of the same!

Pulling garlic

Today we harvested about 40 percent of our garlic. We started pulling garlic from the ground about two weeks earlier than last year. From every harvest there is always some garlic that does not make the grade, but this year the proportion may be somewhat higher. The garlic that did pass muster, though, looks quite good. Red Rocambole and Killerney are two of the varieties we pulled out today. For the curious, we only grow hard neck varieties.

It seems that this year there is a higher proportion of small bulbs (blame it on the dry spring). Do not despair: there is plenty of garlic for everyone and you will definitely get a number of good-sized bulbs.

Today's garlic is now curing in the loft of one of our barns. The timing was perfect: a very welcome rainstorm, with enough lightning and thunder to terrify the dogs, hit us just as we were getting ready to leave the field.

As old shareholders know, first we will be giving you fresh garlic and a few weeks later you will start receiving cured garlic.

We didn't have a camera today, but you can see pictures of last year's garlic harvest by clicking here.

Last week of May

Among other things during the last week of May, we transplanted sweet potatoes, u-pickers hit our two strawberry fields hard, and we started to harvest garlic scapes. The appearance of garlic scapes usually indicates that garlic bulbs themselves will be harvested about a month later. As Carrie noticed, the garlic plants are drying somewhat earlier than usual. We are not exactly sure what this means. The drier than usual spring is certainly a factor. Perhaps we will start harvesting garlic sooner than expected and perhaps our bulbs will be smaller than in previous years.    

May turned out to be a fairly dry month. The farm probably got less than half the usual precipitation. All in all this has been a dry spring: in terms of rain, April was a good month, but it was sandwiched  between a March with virtually no precipitation and a fairly dry May.

Last Saturday we were surprised by the number of worksharers that came to the farm--almost forty individuals. In August we can keep such a crowd busy harvesting, but there is simply less to harvest in May. Nonetheless, once the harvest was done we kept everyone fairly busy with weeding some of our beds as well as raking recently mowed rye grass and hairy vetch (cover crop) and then piling it all up on a compost heap.

We appreciate our volunteers and worksharers, and we understand that most of them are unable to come to the farm during the regular work week. But let me lobby for Tuesday as the day of the week to come. If you want to work for a share or simply volunteer at the farm, you will be especially welcomed on Tuesday, which is our most intense harvest day.

And now a few photos.

Above we see Dave clearing a heap of just-mowed cover crop that was in his way. Dave was using the tractor to prepare a couple of beds with a mechanical spader. (Photo by Sarah Tooley.)

Worksharers and Gail (foreground) weeding one of our beds.

Kenji engaging in close combat with new green stuff on his compost pile.

Strawberry time!

We have ripe strawberries, ready for you-pick.  We'll be including strawberries in your share, but one quart really isn't enough.  You should definitely plan to find your way to the farm at least a few times in the next four weeks and pick to your heart's content.  We're not at peak ripeness yet--most of the berries you find are sweet but under-ripe.  So your first share of strawberries might need a few days on your counter to reach their maximum potential.  If you're picking large quantities for jam, I recommend waiting a week more. 

And just a quick note for Saturday members--you should have received an email that there WILL be a share this Saturday, May 20.  It turns out your greens grew better than we had expected.  Nice surprise, eh?

A Healthy Cover Crop

The lush green field in the foreground of the photo is a cover crop--a mix of hairy vetch and rye grass seeded by Rob last fall. Here is a closer look at this healthy mix.

In not too long this cover crop will be incorporated into the soil with a tractor-pulled disker. After that the next step will be to transplant vegetable seedlings. And those seedlings will produce yummie veggies that all of us will be enjoying later in the summer. I believe that the field above is where our eggplant will be this year. To learn a bit more about cover crops, click here to read what Rob wrote about them back in 2004.

Flowering Strawberries

Our strawberries are in full bloom, which means that in a few weeks shareholders will be enjoying fresh Clagett Farm strawberries.  Expect a few by the end of May, but most of them will come during the first half of June.

Gleaning--what's available

It's that time of year when our members, worksharers, and friends can glean whatever remains from our fields.  Beginning tomorrow (Friday, 11/18) through Sunday afternoon, you can come to the farm anytime and harvest.  At the washing station we will have a map telling you where to find everything, and around the farm we will post signs to help guide you to the fields.   If you would like to come when we are there to help you, we will be around 9am-5pm Friday, 10am-2pm Saturday, and noon-3pm Sunday.  A small volunteer group will come Sunday afternoon to help us glean what's left for a soup kitchen. 

Here is a list of what is available to pick right now:

lettuce
spinach (very small; requires patience and good knees to harvest)
arugula (plenty)
spicy mix (plenty)
mizuna
red mustard
green mustard
turnip greens
collards
kale
small heads broccoli
tiny heads cauliflower
many immature heads cabbage
about 10 pounds small, slightly-soft sweet potatoes
about 20 pounds garlic bulbs
hakurei turnips
purple-top turnips
watermelon radishes
regular radishes ("cherry belle" and "easter egg")
jimmy nardello peppers (sweet, frying)
padron chiles (hot when larger than a golf ball)
lots of assorted, dried chiles scattering the ground where they were growing
dill
cilantro
garlic chives
oregano
mint
nasturtiums (peppery, edible flowers and leaves--some frost damage)
basil (doesn't win any prizes for appearance--frost damage)
anise hyssop (licorice flavored herb--great for hot tea! Some frost damage  )

Please be warned that many of the above items are scattered in distant fields.  These are items that were not harvested before because there was not enough to serve our hundreds of members, or it was so small or scattered it was not worth the time.  By it's nature gleaning requires some patience and a keen eye for what might be hidden in a field that looks cleaned out.  Please bring bags, and a knife will be helpful to harvest the small greens.  If you're hoping for a couple pounds of salad greens, expect to squat or crouch for 15 minutes or more.  Also, it's been cold and windy at times, so please dress appropriately for the weather, and wear comfortable shoes that you can get dirty.  The frost on the grass will get your feet cold and wet until mid-morning.

If you would like to surprise someone with a Thanksgiving or Christmas wreath, we will have some for sale.  Many include garlic, popcorn and chiles, so they are useful even after the holidays have passed. 

If we don't see you this weekend, have a terrific winter!