New Potatoes & the first Basil of 2024

The warm weather brought some new and exciting crops to the market stand this past weekend.

The potatoes have been flowering for the past few weeks which means that they are close to being ready to harvest and the way to decide when they are the right size to begin harvest we have to dig up a few plants.

Last Friday we decided to dig a few plants to see if they were ready to harvest and they were.

These creamy white potatoes called Sifra had grown a lot in the past few weeks that once they are within the size range we would we want to take some to market.

Everyone was so excited to have freshly dug new potatoes instead of ones that have been stored over the winter.

The first potatoes where the skins are not fully set on them are called new potatoes and are so delicate that they need to be kept in the refrigerator to last.

We also harvested the first basil of the year for market, both the Genovese and Thai varieties. In the last two weeks they have grown so fast thanks to the nights over 50 degrees and sunny days.

It won’t be at market for a little bit but we are also starting to harvest the garlic. After the heads of garlic are pulled from the ground they will need a couple of weeks to cure before we begin to bring them to market.

This week will be the last spinach of the spinach due to the hot weather and we are also out of turnips until the fall after harvesting all of them we direct seeded this spring. We’ll definitely plant more in the fall and next spring.

While we start to harvest summer crops, the last few summer veggies are being planted. This past week we got the last big planting of tomatoes in the ground plus the last peppers and eggplant.

All that is left to transplant until August are the leeks and one more planting of Genovese basil. We have a little bit more direct seeding to do but not much.

The one other crop that grows in the summer that we have yet to plant is the winter squash. In a couple of weeks we will direct seed them into the ground so we are currently working on preparing the area for them.

We are growing the same three varieties this year that we have the past two years in Honeynut, Delicata and Butterbaby. We hope to have lots of them available in the fall and early winter.