We have had some spectacular skies this last week or so; you can see a small sample in the images.
Our tomato plants are finally cranking out a decent amount to harvest now. The tomato hornworms are thick on the plants, so we have been picking them off every morning. They are hard to see at first until your eyes get dialed in and then it is pretty easy to find them. Of course it is really clear where to look for the fat worms because they strip all the leaves and small branches from the plants, so there are lots of bare branches where they have been.
The date for the Agustín Kitchen farm dinner has been changed. Please pardon any inconvenience this may cause. The dinner will be in the evening on Sunday, August 21.
This weekend is the Tomato & Basil Festival at the Rillito market, so if you like tomatoes and/or basil check out the market Sunday morning.
Where is the rain? We’re waiting on it – not so patiently. I am simulating the monsoon in the field by watering with sprinklers during the heat of the day. That makes it nice and humid in the field and a little bit cooler than the surrounding desert.
Our cucumber vines are finally producing! The variety we are growing this summer is Suyo Long, originating in northern China. These cukes are slightly spiny, but the skins are pretty thin and the flesh is sweet and crunchy. We should be bringing these to the market for a couple months. We are growing this variety this summer because they are resistant to cucumber beetle damage and are also resistant to the bacterial wilt that the cucumber beetles spread. Last year the beetles wiped out our cucumber and melon plants, so we have changed our varieties and some of our cultivation practices. For example, this spring we started the cucumber plants in pots and transplanted them after they were fairly large. This prevents the cuke beetles from killing the seedlings as they sprout.
The blackberries are almost finished; we should be able to harvest a few pounds over the next 2 weeks, but no more large harvests.
As mentioned in an earlier newsletter, Agustín Kitchen will be hosting a farm dinner using our produce. The dinner will be in the evening on Sunday, August 7. We will send out a flyer later this week, plus make announcements on Facebook and on Instagram @southwindsfarmaz.
We are back at it after a short mid-summer break. I hope you had a great 4th of July holiday.
We’ve had some decent amounts of rain over the last ten days and the plants are growing apace. Of course the weeds are also growing like crazy. I spent much of yesterday weeding with some volunteer helpers while Sam and Steve harvested produce.
Our summer squash plants are producing pounds and pounds of zucchini, flying saucer patty pan and Benning’s green tint patty pan squash. The cucumber plants are finally fruiting; we trellised the plants yesterday and picked a few early cukes – we will have these at the market within 2 weeks.
If you are a user of social media, you may be interested to know that SouthWinds Farm now has a Facebook page and we are also posting on Instagram @southwindsfarmaz.
Sam and Steve picking purple beansBennings green tint squashSquash blossoms on the zucchini plant
As a reminder, we will be taking a short Independence Day break and we will not be delivering CSA shares, nor will we be attending the markets on July 3 (Rillito) and July 6 (Green Valley).
We will be back at Rillito on Sunday July 10 and in Green Valley on Wednesday July 13.
As you can see from the images, some of our summer crops are finally starting to come in. And it’s about time !! We got a bit behind in the late spring planting due to a shortage of help on the farm – familiar theme.
We are still looking for help on harvest days (Tuesday, Friday and Saturday) or other days, if you are interested. If you know anyone who might want to work with us, please send them to see us at the markets or pass along my email address joe@southwindsfarm.org. Anyone who helps us out will go home with a share of delicious, fresh, organic produce. Thank you in advance for passing along this request for assistance.
We survived the heatwave and so did the crops. It has been mostly cloudy for days out here, which makes for pleasant working conditions. The monsoon is trying to start up, teasing us with virga and sprinkles as it does for weeks every summer before the full monsoon kicks in to gear.
We are excited to be hosting a farm visit from most of the chefs, servers and other staff of The Coronet and Agustín Kitchen this upcoming Monday morning. It looks like we will have a group of 20 or so people checking out the source of some of their ingredients. Should be a fun morning !
Agustín Kitchen will be hosting a special event in early August featuring SouthWinds Farm produce. As the planning for this dinner proceeds, we will provide more details.
As a reminder, we will be taking a short Independence Day break and we will not be delivering CSA shares, nor will we be attending the markets on July 3 (Rillito) and July 6 (Green Valley).
Corno di toro sweet peppersPurple bush beansPlum tomatoes
Our potatoes are almost ready for harvest! In the images you can see a potato plant before I dug it up, the same plant with potatoes still attached and some baby new potatoes harvested for the CSA shares. We will soon have potatoes in the markets available for everyone.
Yesterday we finally finished putting up the shade cloth over the tomatoes, chiles, sweet peppers and cucumber plants. I rented a power t-post driver and that saved us a lot of work. More than half of middle terrace in the field is now shaded with a 30% shade cloth. It is noticeably cooler under the shade in the heat of the day. We will augment the shade with water sprinklers during the upcoming heatwave to keep the temperatures reasonable for the plants (and for us as we work in the field).
In case you don’t receive the Heirloom Farmers’ Markets emails — the Sunday market at Rillito this weekend (19 June) will open at 7a and close around 11a due to the expected extreme heat.
Potato plant before harvestAfter harvestBaby new potatoes
As you have likely noticed the moisture that fuels the monsoon is starting to creep in to southeastern Arizona. The cloud buildups have been visible south and east of the farm for the last week or so and there has been a teaser shower or two at the farm in the last few days. We are impatiently waiting on the monsoon rains to begin. When they start, everything will grow more quickly and the plants will be a lot happier. Lately they have been really droopy in the afternoon heat and are perked back up by the morning, only to repeat the cycle.
Yesterday we finished putting the bird netting and shade cloth over and around the blackberry bushes. We finished this task just in time because the first berries ripened this week. Of course we have eaten all of the very few ripe ones that we have seen. It looks like we should have enough for the CSA shares and maybe even for the markets within a few weeks.
We partly completed trellising the tomato plants this week. Most of the plants have many small tomatoes and more blossoms are opening every day, so it looks like we will have an abundant tomato harvest. Now we just have to wait for them to ripen; it always seems like the first ones take forever to be ready to pick. We will keep you up to date on their progress.
We started harvesting at 5a this morning and quit a little after noon. It is 102 degrees out in the field right now. I just put some additional shade over some seedlings we planted last evening. They were looking pretty wilted, but will perk up as soon as the sun gets low and the temperature moderates. Tomorrow will be even hotter !!
We are planting more herbs this summer than last. We currently have white sage, spearmint, cilantro, and sorrel growing; you may have seen these at our markets.
We just planted basil and dill. We will start seeds of thyme, parsley, oregano and summer savory this weekend.
If you have suggestions as to additional herbs that you would like to see in our farm stand at the markets or if you have a favorite variety that you think would be a good one for us to grow, please email us or tell us when you stop by at the market.
It is going to be a delicious season this round. The images show some of the tasty vegetables and fruit that you will see in your shares.
I saw the first tomato yesterday. The plants really took off growing this week. Our newest farmer-in-training, Stephen, spent some hours pruning the plants yesterday, removing the suckers below the first set of flowers and all the branches touching the ground. Now those plants are primed to grow and provide us a bounty of mouth-watering plum tomatoes. I can’t wait!
The blackberry plants are loaded with fruit, exceeding my expectations for this season. This will only be the second harvest from these brambles. Last year we picked about 35 pounds – well, we picked a lot more, but many were eaten right off the vine. Anyway, we had 35 pounds that went to the market and nearly all went to our CSA members; there just weren’t enough to sell at the market. This year it looks like we might harvest 100 pounds ! That’s a lot of cobbler, jam, ice cream sauce, fruit compote!
The potatoes, variety Colorado Rose, are growing very rapidly now. Many of them have flower buds almost ready to open. That means we will soon be able to steal a few baby new potatoes from the plants. Those baby new potatoes won’t make it to the market (we will scarf them down at the farm), but as soon as the new potatoes are ready to harvest, they will be showing up in CSA shares and at the markets.
The red cabbage is heading up – a few will make it to the market tomorrow and Wednesday.
The Rainbow Swiss chard plants have finally taken off. To my eye, this is one of the most beautiful plants we grow.
Okay, I need to get back out into the field. There is still lots to plant and a big harvest to get in before the sun goes down.
Rainbow Swiss chardRed cabbageBlackberriesThe first tomatoColorado Rose potato plants
SouthWinds Farm 