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.

Code Red Harvesting

The radio and the papers urged folks to stay indoors on Tuesday, a Code Red day. But Tuesdays are our busiest harvest days and there is no choice for us. We were very impressed, though, by those who did have a choice and still came to the farm to pitch in. Connecticut volunteers from Young Neighbors in Action harvested close to 500 lbs of tomatoes. Other volunteers and worksharers helped us harvest over 700 lbs of summer squash and cucumbers. And that's not all they did, but I'll stop here to show some photos.

Harvesting summer squash. Susan Minor, shareholder and volunteer, is in the foreground.

Worksharer Laurie Martin between the summer squash and the sunflowers.

Tricia McCauley, a veteran worksharer, carrying a bin of cucumbers she just harvested.

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!

Harvesting peas

It's time for sugar snap and snow peas. What you see below are a few sugar snap peas right before harvesting.
 
If you see fresh peas at a farmers market you will notice that they are not cheap. If you harvest them you will realize why. It is a labor intensive endeavor and it takes a while to accumulate a significant amount of peas.

The scene above is from yesterday, when we were harvesting sugar snaps for the Tuesday share. And below we see Carrie checking out the condition of recently seeded rows right next to the trellised peas.

Upside Down Tomatoes

Have you ever seen tomatoes growing upside down? If not, you may see some in our high tunnel below the wash station. Carrie decided to experiment and see how they'll turn out. The plants are small now, but we hope that later in the summer you'll enjoy some of our big beef and sun gold (which are tiny) upside down tomatoes. The vast majority of our tomatoes are grown the normal way and they'll be maturing somewhat later than the high tunnel upside down tomatoes.

Here we see Dave Vernon installing the irrigation hose for the upside down tomatoes. The fact that Dave is a tall and handy fellow made him perfect for the job. We put up the tomatoes the day before, a job that provided a good work out for arms and shoulders.

Transplanting Tomatoes

We transplanted tomatoes this past Friday, April 28. It was a glorious spring day, just perfect to work outside. Farm workers and volunteers enjoyed a day with few glitches. Here are a few photos to show you what we did. First, we see Rob Vaughn disking the cover crop.

Next, Megan Caine, a dear Clagett Farm veteran who now often volunteers, is pulling out tomato seedlings from their trays to place them in the transplanter container. Tuz Boy is the dog checking out the operation.

And in the last picture, Kenji Warren is driving the tractor and volunteers Sean O'Harra and Terry Victor are sitting on the transplanter working as tomato seedlings setters.

Our transplanter is very old and was originally used for tobacco. It's a very ingenious device. For a quick explanation of how it works, click here to read one of our posts from last year. 

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!

Last CSA harvest of 2005

This past Tuesday, November 8, we had our last harvest day of the 2005 season. A bittersweet day. Everyone was cheerful and our team's customary wry and irreverent humor was in good form. And yet there was a tinge of sadness, too. After all, we will not be doing this again in a while and when we resume some of us will not be around. But that's what happens every year. There is continuity even in this end of season dispersion.

 

Here we are harvesting mixed baby lettuce for our CSA shareholders. In the foreground, on the left we see Carrie being productive as always and to the right a smiling Andrea Humm is being her usual gracious self, but Dave Vernon, in the middle, is showing obvious signs of work-induced derangement (the size of the image may not show that clearly, so readers will have to trust me on that).

A view from the other side: Gail Taylor and Megan Caine with the baby lettuce. It took a comically long time to harvest this tiny lettuce. Why? Because when we seeded them we didn't expect that we would be cutting them that small--otherwise we would have them closer together for a quicker and more efficient harvest. Incidentally, cutting baby lettuce is not the only exciting experience lived by Gail and Megan. Gail recently returned from a visit to Europe. Right before Europe she had some interesting adventures in Guatemala. Megan, after studying Spanish in Ecuador, hitchhiked through several South American countries. Every once in a while during her travels the farm would receive Megan's fascinating emails. Her traveling companion was Farah Fosse, another friend of the farm who frequently volunteers here. Before we knew her, Megan also traveled to China and South East Asia.

Back to the baby lettuce. Here is a batch of it being rinsed to get it ready for the shareholders.

Dave, Andrea and Megan working on the lettuce at the wash station. Dave is new to the DC area. Shortly after his arrival this summer he found out about Clagett Farm and has been a consistent volunteer ever since. He has worked on farms in his native Wales, and lived in South Africa and Canada. As to Andrea, all season she was a Tuesday volunteer whose dedication went above and beyond the call of duty. Neither cold rain nor oppressive heat ever managed to dent her gracious and gentle humor.

During Tuesday's lunch break Kathleen Davis came by to say hello and goodbye to us--her former farm teammates. We were happy to see her! Next week she is flying to her home in Hawaii. We wish Kathleen the very best, but for selfish reasons hope to see her back. Many of you know Kathleen, especially if you were a Saturday shareholder or worksharer in 04 and 05. Few people know, however, how much the CSA benefited from Kathleen's friendly and unassuming but very capable presence.

So here we are in mid-November. There are still plenty of things to do at the farm. But the dynamics of the work are quite different and fewer hands are needed.