Welcome to the 2007 Harvest Season!

 What's in the shares this week

Please note:  this list is prepared the week before we harvest your share.  Some guesswork is involved:  some things may be in the share that are not on the list, and some listed things may not be in the share.

Salad and Cooking Greens

• Lettuce
• Spinach
• Savoy Cabbage
• Bok Choy
• Swiss Chard

Root Crops

• Carrots
• Beets

Alliums

• Bunching Onions

Have you checked out our ideas on our Produce Info and Recipes page?  Feel free to submit recipes and cooking ideas to us at waltham.csa.news@gmail.com!

Pick your own crops this week

• Peas
• Basil
• Dill
• Cilantro
• Epazote

CSA shareholders can visit the farm to pick your own herbs Sunday through Thursday during daylight hours.  Visit the red pick-your-own kiosk in the fields for a list of available crops and picking supplies.

Comings and goings on the farm
Last week we welcomed a volunteer group from Cisco Systems to the farm to work on one of the hottest days we've had so far. Thank you, Cisco!

Our field work shares, Scott and Lucia DiMaio, are leaving Boston for the Washington area. We appreciate Scott and Lucia's help this season and hope that they find a great farm to join in Virginia.

Crop updates

Groundhogs have continued to be a major pest in our cucumber, summer squash and watermelon plantings. They have caused serious damage to all three crops (and our first fennel planting, which maybe only Martín and I really mourn). I have seen pretty bad woodchuck damage here at the farm over the last three years, but I have never seen them eat an entire field of plants - and then follow up by eating the replanted crops over the weekend. I think that there must be a severe overpopulation problem in the area between our field and the brook at the Lyman Field. Conservation restrictions understandably prevent us from clearing the area, resulting in an overgrowth of plants like makes it prime habitat for woodchuck burrows. So far, Kate has put up a fence around the field (400 feet long and 50 feet wide, in one evening, essentially alone) and stuck tiny red, white and blue pinwheels around the other field. Martín and I followed up by surrounding the fields with red and silver flash tape at the nose level of a groundhog. We hope that these efforts will help us bring you some of the summer's finest crops - cucumbers, zucchini, summer squash, watermelon, and, yes, fennel - but for now those crops are off the menu for us unless we are able to find a farm to buy them from early in the season.

Hot, dry weather was upon us last week following a cool, dry stretch. Our tomatoes are taking off and growing well, and peppers and eggplant are following along. After a few rough starts, we've gotten our summer lettuce up and growing in our shade house in the middle of the field, so we should have lettuce for you again before too long. Fall plantings of broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, kohlrabi and other crops are going in this week, making it our second busiest planting period of the season. Hope for some rain for our dry little farm!

Many farmers are reporting a terrible year for aphids this season. We have seen them on many crops, particularly our fava beans. It's always interesting when conditions favor a particular pest, and although no one seems to be exactly sure what's causing this infestation, for now it seems to be no more than a nuisance for us - much less of a problem than the woodchucks.

From all the staff at Waltham Fields Community Farm: