tomatoes – SouthWinds Farm

Farm Update September 9, 2017

September 9, 2017September 8, 2017swfupdatesLeave a comment

We are slowly getting the weeds under control, with help from our volunteers John and Chris. Once the weeds are gone, the grasshopper plague should be more manageable.

We are harvesting a bumper crop of tomatoes, over 400 pounds per week. If you or any friends are interested in making and/or canning some tasty tomato sauce, please let us know and we will sell you tomatoes in bulk for a great price.

Our chile plants are now producing nicely. We have sinajuisa (similar to a serrano, but better flavor), jalapeños, poblanos and Aleppo. All of these will be at the market on Sunday.

Our late summer succession of summer squash is also cranking. We will have zucchini and patty pan at the market again starting this weekend.

We will be selling CSA shares for our fall & winter CSA season that will start on November 12 and continue until mid-March. The forms will be available at the Sunday market, and in the CSA box on the right sidebar of this website, and here.

We will see you at the market!

a pomegranate (var. Parfianka) from our mini-orchard

Farm Update August 26, 2017

August 26, 2017August 25, 2017swfupdatesLeave a comment

The Great Ripening is upon us! We are harvesting loads of plum tomatoes now. Yesterday we harvested about 80 pounds from about 2/3 of the row. We have the tomatoes at the market this Sunday and should have them until early December.

Also, the corno di toro Italian sweet peppers are finally ripening en masse, as are the jalapeños and lunchbox peppers. All of these plants should continue to produce for a couple months at least.

We have had a few volunteers this week and have been able to get a bit more done on controlling the massive volume of weeds in our field. Little by little we are getting a handle on the weeds.

We will soon be selling CSA shares for our fall & winter CSA season that will start in early November and continue until mid-February. Please let us know if you want us to reserve a share for you.

Thank you for supporting local, organic, sustainable farming in southern AZ !

Farm Update July 1, 2017

July 1, 2017July 8, 2017swfupdatesLeave a comment

As you may remember, this weekend there will be no CSA distribution at Rillito and Green Valley/Sahuarita. We are taking a week off from the CSA for the Independence Day holiday weekend.

We will still be selling at our farm stand at the Rillito farmers’ market on Sunday, July 2. Please stop by if you need anything on our availability list.

We will not be at the Good Shepherd UCC on Monday morning.

We are looking for farm workers and for volunteers on harvest and other days. Please contact me at joe@southwindsfarm.org or 520-909-4903 if you are interested or if you know anyone who would like to intern or volunteer.

Our summer crops are getting closer to being ready to harvest. I have eaten the earliest few ripe tomatoes and there should be more soon. There are tiny cucumbers on the vines and the peppers are blooming and starting to form. The purple and Romano flat beans in the first bed are nearly ready to pick.

Have a great Independence Day holiday!

We will see you at the Rillito Farmer’s Market this Sunday!

Farm Update October 22, 2016

October 22, 2016October 22, 2016swfupdatesLeave a comment

It has been so warm lately, but we’re not complaining. The lingering end of the warm temperatures is allowing our summer crops to keep producing.

We gambled with some late season slicer tomatoes and it looks like the fates will allow us to harvest some tasty large tomatoes. The vines are loaded with green ones that are just starting to turn, so we’ll happily take the hot weather as long as it lasts.

The warm temperatures are also hastening the ripening of the butternut squash. We have three beds that were planted a week or two apart. The butternuts from the earliest planting are almost ready to pick; the skin is turning from green to tan and is hardening. In the latest bed, the squash are still medium-sized and green. If we don’t get a frost for another month, we will have a much larger harvest of the butternut.

The sweet potatoes that we harvested last week are curing in the pumphouse in high humidity and relatively high temperatures. We had a heater going in the pumphouse most of last night and will run the heater all night tonight. We have some very tasty sweet potatoes on the way!

We are still signing up CSA shareholders. If you would like to sign up for the next season, we will continue taking payments/reservations for our 16-week fall/winter CSA share program, deliveries for which will begin the middle of November and run through the middle of March 2017. Shares will cost $250 for 16 weekly deliveries.

We will have the forms at the markets this weekend, and they are also available on our website, here.

img_0887-copy — the butternut squash are almost ready to pick !

img_0884-copy — our late-season slicing tomatoes are also almost ready to pick

Farm Update June 25, 2016

June 25, 2016July 31, 2016swfupdatesLeave a comment

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).

IMG_0459_cornoditorosweetpeppers copy — Corno di toro sweet peppers

IMG_0458_purplebushbeans copy — Purple bush beans

IMG_0457_plumtomatoes copy — Plum tomatoes

Farm Update June 4, 2016

June 4, 2016July 31, 2016swfupdatesLeave a comment

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 !!

IMG_0418_beanbushesblooming copy — Bean bushes blooming

Farm Update April 16, 2016

April 16, 2016July 31, 2016swfupdatesLeave a comment

We harvested the entire French red shallot crop on Tuesday. Wow! I didn’t weigh it yet, but I think the weight is somewhere between 200 and 400 pounds. We have shallots drying on many makeshift horizontal surfaces, as you can see in the images. And that is only about half of them; the loft of the Tiny House is also full of shallots as is two more temporary surfaces above what will be the living room. In 4 or 5 weeks the shallots will be cured and we will be able to reclaim those spaces and move the shallots into cold storage.

IMG_0301 copy

Our small hoophouse is now full of seedlings waiting to be transplanted into beds in the field. The images show some tomatoes, chiles and peppers.

This week we will continue the sign-up for the late spring/summer CSA. It will consist of 16 weeks of deliveries to the markets starting the third week. of May and continuing into September. The cost will be $250. We will have the signup forms at our farm stands and available online. Please let us know if you’d like to reserve a spot.