Your Veggies this week:
Please wash your greens at home. The easiest way that we have found is to fill a large bowl/pot with cool water and swish to dislodge any dirt or pests that may be present. Have a large enough bowl or pot so the soil can drop to the bottom. You can spin dry with a greens spinner or blot with a dish towel. Wash them when you are ready to use them. They will stay fresher that way. Excess moisture is a greens killer.
Week #1 (A) bok choy, lettuce heads, komatsuna, rhubarb, choose 1 – basil or parsley plant for home if you want.
Farm News:
What a month it has been! May was quite a busy month for us with a lot of weather fluctuations. As you may have noticed, this was a very wet spring. Our farm had over 2.75″ of rainfall above normal when May arrived. This was on top of our over 7″ above normal for the year. This makes it very difficult to prepare the beds in the field for planting. It is not ideal to work the soil and drive the tractor in the field when it is too moist. This can destroy the soil structure. Sometimes we have no choice. Joe was able to get the soil worked in between storms. We had a couple of days to get the raised beds in and some direct seeding done in early May. These are usually our early greens and roots that take a little over 30 days to grow, such as arugula, mizuna, radish, and komatsuna. Unfortunately, it was too hot for the arugula and mizuna under the row covers. We always try for spring, but we will plant them again for the fall. The radish and hakurei turnips are not ready yet. They do not enjoy the dry, hot weather we have had over the past few weeks.
The direct-seeded beds were covered with a large row cover. We do not use pesticides, and this can be our only protection in the open field from the dreaded flea beetle. This is the tiny black jumping bug that eats little tiny holes in leaves. It thrives in hot temperatures, which we also had plenty of this month. We do our best, but it is nearly impossible to keep them away. You will see the little holes in your komatsuna this week. The bok choy and lettuce were grown in a hoop house, and the bok choy was covered with a special fine-hole netting. We can only use this netting inside a tunnel since it is so expensive. Deer and dogs will run over them, making holes that render them useless. This also happens with the row cover.
This month, we planted the following in high tunnels and hoop houses: tomato, peppers, lettuce, broccoli, swiss chard, cucumbers, and bok choy. In the field, we planted: eggplant, peppers, summer squash, onions, tat soi, pac choy, scallions, potatoes, parsley, and basil.
We had repairs to make on the very first hoop house that we built oh so many years ago. It needed new boards along the bottom and a new plastic covering. This hoophouse will be used for all of our plum tomatoes.
We also upgraded our outside “hardening off” area for plants with new tables and a shade cloth. This is where all the transplants wait until they get transplanted into the field. It is working great!
Want to know what varieties we are growing this season?
Take a look at our variety list for this year: 2026 Variety List – with photos
Inspiration for your veggies this week:
Take a look at the pages from the vegetable directory for ideas and inspiration in the kitchen
Vegetable Directory – main page
- Rhubarb
- Bok Choy
- Asian Greens – Komatsuna – lovely as a salad with a peanut dressing, cooks quickly if steaming or sauteed
- Lettuce
Tomato planting and trellising
Planting Potato
Eggplant, onions, asian greens in the field, and our new hardening off tables with plants in waiting
Hoop House repair and plum tomato
Hoophouse/Hightunnel planting and protecnet
Direct seeded and under row cover, and snow peas
Some storms this month
Thank you from your farmers, Joely & Joe!
