Harvesting the First Luffas & Experimenting with Microgreens

Village Farm Team,

We were able to harvest the first of our luffas this past week! They’re currently in the greenhouse so they can dry out a bit more before they will be ready for use. So far we’ve been able to learn a lot from our experiment with these fascinating members of the Cucurbitaceae family. Initially their growth was much slower than our cucumbers and we even thought they might suffer a setback after the downpour that eventually took out most of our melons. But, they pleasantly surprised us and have been thriving. We’re thinking of planting the next round on one side of the chicken pen to provide natural shade and give them more height to climb than our current trellises.

We started a microgreen experiment last week as a way to use up leftover seeds and eventually supplement our summer crops. Microgreens are simply young vegetable greens that are harvested when they are between one and three inches tall. They have a much more concentrated flavor than their mature counterparts and are often denser in nutrient content. We’ve currently got a mix of peas, mustards, turnips, radishes, and broccoli growing so that we can test out and create our own blend. We’ll keep you updated and let you know once they are available at the veggie wagon!

Sadly, we lost our first succession of watermelons to excess rainfall. We decided to plant a second succession several weeks back and are happy to report that the plants are doing well! We’re seeing the first male flowers on our vines so we expect to start seeing female flowers within the next few weeks. Watermelons originated in West Africa with the earliest evidence of cultivation found in the Nile Valley in the 2nd millennium BC. Watermelons were brought to the New World by both European colonists and enslaved Africans and were grown in Florida as early as 1576.