The Arrival of August & Harvesting Microgreens

Village Farm Team,

We’ve made it to August! This month is often the most challenging in farming due to the relentless high temperatures and greater possibility of hurricanes and excess rainfall. Though we got a brief cool front this weekend, we’re back to the hot and sunny conditions that are typical for this time of year. This month we’ll be battling the never-ending challenge of weeding, planning and seeding for fall/winter, and keeping an eye on our existing crops for pest damage. We’re crossing our fingers that we can add a sizable sweet potato harvest to that list as well.

After experimenting for a few weeks with microgreens, we’ve finally settled on the best growing method as well as a flavorful mix. The microgreens have proven to be a lovely way to supplement our summer crops and have been enjoyable to work with as they are ready to harvest within a week or two after they are planted. We’ve noticed the quickest growing greens are the radishes which have a light peppery flavor. We’ll be offering a microgreen mix at the veggie wagon this coming weekend so make sure to stop by if you’d like to take some home to enjoy!

Our first succession of okra continues to thrive with the second succession nearly ready for us to begin harvesting. The first succession of eggplant doesn’t appear to have fared well after the rains on Saturday so it’s possible that it will make its way out of season until our second succession is ready for harvesting. The butternuts also seem to have been affected by the rain so we’ve started the process of harvesting and curing the mature ones. Our fall tomato seedlings were potted-up this past week as they continue to grow. The Grand Marshall variety seems to be doing the best as it is more heat tolerant than Granadero and BHN 871. And, we were pleasantly surprised when we checked on our watermelons to see several sizable fruits hiding among the vines.