Cantaloupe Coup and Butternut Bonanza

Cantaloupe Coup

The garden is cranking out the goods.  There is a lot to harvest this week, and I am grateful for that.  I am grateful, even if I am a little tired of picking tomatoes.

We are in the middle of one of the best cantaloupe harvests we have ever had.  It’s a good thing I am not a cantaloupe farmer, because my experience with them is very hit or miss.  Mostly miss.  It’s been years since we’ve had a good harvest.  The weather plays a big part in it.  I was anxious about the rain all last week.  We were forecast for rain from Wednesday through Saturday, and day by day the rain got pushed back until the next day, then the next.  Eventually we didn’t get any rain at all!

I picked the first cantaloupe on Thursday and have been gathering more almost every day since.  We have five new varieties out there, all varieties I have never grown before.  We have always grown the Sarah’s Choice melon, which has a fantastic flavor, but it so prone to splitting and cracking that more melons rot than not.   Out of the five we are trying, I am hoping to find at least one variety that produces an abundance of melons, ripens the majority of the fruit without rotting, and is delicious!  This is the first of two plantings of melons.  The second round of cantaloupe should be ready towards the end of the month.

Butternut bonanza

We are over halfway done bringing in the butternut squash, too!  Growing them on the trellis this year has resulted in the prettiest, most blemish free squash.  Almost all the squash are harvest quality, with very few rotten, split, or damaged fruit.  I always grow the Waltham butternut, but this year I added a hybrid variety and I am looking forward to seeing which one produced the most squash once the harvest is complete.  Once we cut the squash from the vine, it goes to the greenhouse to cure.  A couple weeks in the greenhouse and the skins thicken, stems dry, and flesh sweetens, resulting in a squash that will keep for many months.

First fall carrots in the ground

I just planted the first seeds in the fall garden!  Carrots!  I have plenty of cabbage and broccoli and more started in the greenhouse, but these were the first seeds to go in the field.  There is a lot of planting to do in August to make sure we have a steady supply of produce as summer gives way to fall.  If all goes well, this carrots will be ready to harvest in mid-October.

Small Shares

• Slicing Tomatoes
• Sakura Cherry Tomato
• Juliet Tomato
• Sweet Peppers
• Red Onion
• Okra
• Small Cantaloupe

Full Shares

• Slicing Tomatoes
• Sakura Cherry Tomato
• Juliet Tomato
• Sweet Peppers
• Red Onion
• Okra
• Cantaloupe