Well. It’s been a rough week to be growing vegetables. More incredible heat, and more incredible drought. We’ve been growing here for a decade now, and never had anything like this before – hot spells, dry spells, sure – but this is has been sustained and extreme far beyond anything we’ve yet faced.
The irrigation, which some years is used not at all, is running daily, trying to at least keep the roots somewhat moist in the dust bowl, I mean, field. We’ve kept ourselves moist as best as we can as well, with regular trips to local rivers, which both cool our bodies and soothe our spirits.
The rains keep dodging us, and it’s harder to find it amusing. It was supposed to rain all morning today, but then we got a tiny sprinkle before this happened (we’re the blue dot):
At least the temperatures dropped, and the sun clouded over. And hey, there have been almost no mosquitoes! Although really, at this point, we’d happily deal with swarms of the little suckers if it meant the field got a good soaking.
In other news: a hen snuck away into the woods and raised a nestful somewhere … we’ll have to try to round them up.
Life and hope spring eternal.
Now let’s just get some rain please.
a snake is in there 
Grandpa Jim leads Peter & Marty in the processing roof build 
munching microgreen remains
Inside Box 5
- Blasted Broccoli – we mentioned that the crazy heatwave was having a strange impact on the broccoli; well, this is what happened. It’s kind of mishappen and a bit bitter, but it’s what we managed to save from this cool-weather loving crop. It’s probably extra healthy with anti-oxidants produced to help it survive? Might be best cooked rather than raw, unless you’re into this kind of thing. We are hoping that the heat settles down a bit, and the plants will go on to produce normal side-shoots.
- Sugar Snap Peas – another cool weather crop that is being brutalized by the heat. Sections of the rows are surrendering to entropic heat death, so this will be the biggest pile of peas we can get you this year.
- Slicing & Pickling Cucumbers
- Zucchini – these are doing great anyway!
- Onions – same onions as before, but bulbing up into full onions now.
- Garlic Scapes – Kristin went and harvested a bunch from a local garlic farm yesterday morning, so that we could share them with you.
- Microgreens – 2 per box of either Red Cabbage, Curly Kale, Sunflower Shoots, Cinnamon Basil, or Lemon Basil
Coming soon …
cherry tomatoes 
Otis’s little brother 
white storage onions
I love reading your stories. Congratulations on the little brother for Otis! I am enjoying the veggie share as usual and I know how difficult this drought must be for you to farm.