Hot Weather, Onions, Tomatoes and Lots of Crop Planning

The summer crops just keep rolling in with the heat. They were trickling in through the first harvest but now have exploded and we have lots of them!

We harvested lots of cherry tomatoes for both markets as well as cucumbers and romano beans. The first shishito peppers are making an appearance at market and we are waiting for the other varieties of peppers to begin changing color which is the signifier of ripening.

At the same time all our focus is on harvesting all the summer crops we are planning what we will be planting for the fall. In the best case scenario we would plan out the entire year beforehand but being our first year we didn’t know where we would be selling and what crops would grow the best for us so we waited until now.

We will begin seeding some fall greens and other crops in the greenhouse in about a month so it was important to figure out how much of everything we are going to plant as we need to buy more seeds for many of the crops. To begin the process we looked at all the crops we grew this spring and decided if we wanted to continue growing, try a different variety or not grow it at all. Then we looked at the amount we sold and based on that we guesstimated how much we can grow and sell this fall taking in consideration all the places we sell plus other potential outlets we might sell through.

Once we knew what we wanted to grow and how much we figured out the succession plantings for most of the crops so we can continually harvest them throughout the fall and winter as well as taking into account that they will be getting less daylight and plants grow slower.

For most crops the early plantings will be smaller and more frequent while the later ones will be much larger as they will be able to hold in the field for longer when ready to harvest.

Last December we planted a few hundred Early Red Burger onions and we harvested them a few weeks ago and they just finished curing. We are really excited to have this sweet onion at markets starting this week until we sell out of them. They are so delicious and are great for any dish including slicing and putting on burgers.

We have a second planting of onions that we planted in the spring of red, yellow and also shallots that will be ready in a little bit.

One task that never ends is weeding, we have weeded lots of the summer crops as well as made some passes through the sweet potatoes as well as winter squash.