Many members and friends came out to the farm last Friday and Saturday to pick strawberries. This Friday and Saturday will be another opportunity to come and spend some time in the fields enjoying the first fruit of the season right off the plants. Few experiences are more important to a child (young and old) than picking food right off the plant and enjoying the sweet flavors as they are meant to be eaten. Our multiple plantings of strawberries offer several shades and sizes of berries. Most varieties produce ripe fruit for about two weeks. With several varieties of staggered maturities, we hope to have strawberries for several weeks.

This week marks the summer solstice. With more than 15 hours of daylight, these longest days of the year allows a farmer to get a lot accomplished in the course of a day. The seedings of various crops will continue for weeks ahead. The bulk of all the transplants are now in the field and the transplant greenhouses are now almost empty having done their job of giving thousands of plants a head start on the season. Now we must cultivate out the weeds and ensure the plants have enough water.

The long days are also a trigger to the garlic plant to send up the stem that will hold its flower. This stem is called the garlic scape. By removing the garlic scape we encourage the garlic plant to put more energy into making bigger garlic cloves for us to enjoy instead of putting all that energy into its flower. These garlic scapes are a gourmet delicacy favored by fine chefs and those who know good food. The garlic scapes are only found at this time of year so enjoy them while they last.

Enjoy the early season flavors.

Farmer Dave