Jug Bay Gleaner

Rain and Flooding Update

On the Lettuce Edge — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 03:45:01 +0000

Finally, we are getting a chance to dry out after the flooding rains soaked our basement, flooded some of our fields and even toppled a few of our young apple trees whose roots had nothing firm to hold. Our problems were tiny relative to others nearby who lost their homes and businesses — but still, it has not been an easy week.

The rains on Thursday were so powerful that water started to pool
near the foundation of our house, nearby rivers overflowed their banks and we
were stunned by the photos of flooded homes and shops in our town on Facebook and the news. Later that evening we had to wake sleeping children and take cover in the dank basement during a tornado warning. The next day the rains continued and it felt like they might never stop.

The worst damage on the farm was on a field that a neighbor is
allowing us to use for the first time this year. A stand of winter squash and
watermelon were flooded and remained underwater long enough to drown. We could not walk there without the mud grabbing hold of shoes and pulling. One area is still ponding, 5 days after the rain, the ground just cannot absorb any more water.

Standing out there, watching my husband throw ruined squash on the
ground was a very sad sight. Just a week earlier we were listening to stories
from farms in Vermont and New Jersey who lost so much more. So even as the
water pooled around our ankles and we are surrounded by dying squash vines, we were grateful that things were not worse.

By Sunday the sun came out and we harvested dozens of crates colorful acorn and butternut squash from the higher ground on that field. So things are looking up for now, we hope the ground has a chance to drain before the next storm.

rain and flood update

On the Lettuce Edge — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 18:04:13 +0000

As you know, we are in extremely wet and saturated conditions but we are not in the part of Upper Marlboro that is under water! So far, we are not seeing standing water in our fields but wer haven’t been able to viist all of the areas where we are growing yet. We will try to keep you updated in the next couple of days about what to expect after the rains.

Eggplant, Basil and News

On the Lettuce Edge — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 12:38:30 +0000

The eggplant really started to come in this week and we were happy to pick each pretty one. Besides them, we harvested basil, tomatoes, peppers and potatoes from our farm this week. The shares were topped off with a cucumber, corn and watermelon conventionally grown by Joe Goldsmith and his family near us in Prince George’s County.

Next week I anticipate the shares to be similar to this week, including tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, eggplant and basil from our farm and corn and hot peppers from Joe’s farm. Okra may also be ready to pick by next week as it is growing fast in the heat.

The week of August 8, Jug Bay Market Garden is going on vacation in Lake George, New York so there will be no pick that week. This break will come at a good time since it looks like we will need some time for our later tomato plantings to start yielding a lot.

We hope you enjoy the shares this week.

Filed under: Weekly Share

tomato time

On the Lettuce Edge — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 19:32:57 +0000

We try to eat at least somewhat seasonally in our house, switching from fresh vegetables to frozen in the winter and following the fruit that is coming from Florida rather than further afield. Most of the year I skip over my fresh produce section in the store because there is minimal organic and we either have fresh vegetables from the farm or are working through our frozen stash.

Of course, I make exceptions but it always feels particularly strange and a little like a betrayal to buy tomatoes from someone else’s farm, especially from an anonymous supermarket source . Plus, if I do break down and buy a tomato in the winter they are usually pretty awful (like they have been in cold storage). So for the most part, we do not eat fresh tomatoes except during tomato season.

So, when the first tomatoes start to come in from our farm it is cause for a mini-celebration. This is our first tomato week, a little later than usual but they are full size (cherry tomatoes usually come first but they were planted later this year.) This year, we celebrated with fancy Capri salads with fresh mozzarella which seems increasingly available. The children are eating them sliced on plates with a little sea salt and enjoying the messy fingers. And we are eating them whole like apples.

If all goes well (tss, tss) and we avoid pitfalls like early blight, late blight, blossom end rot and those horrible new invasive stink bugs, we could be picking tomatoes past Labor Day and even at a trickle until the first frost. We have had some tough tomato diseases blow through in the past few years, so we need luck, prayers, crossed fingers, precautions, enough (but not too much) rain and whatever else works. So while the tomatoes are coming in, we will make sure to enjoy them a little more knowing that we will miss them in the winter.

How will you enjoy the first tomatoes of the season?

This post originally appeared on kveller.com.

Kveller.com offers a Jewish twist on parenting, everything a Jewish family could need for raising Jewish children–including crafts, recipes, activities, Hebrew and Jewish names for babies…and advice from Mayim Bialik.

farm update: lots of cucumbers

On the Lettuce Edge — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 16:50:29 +0000

Well it was cucumber week for the CSA. Your shares included brown Poona
Kheera Cucumbers which are named for a town in India, Armenian serpent
cucumbers and regular green slicers. We grew the serpents and poonas on a small sandy, gravelly field by the tobacco barn we sometimes call “the
beach”. They cucumbers love the sandy soil.

This week, we also harvested a lot of beans and should have
more next week. Growing bush beans is one of my favorite things to do and I
look forward to harvesting them from the moment I plant them. I like how they are easier to keep cleanly cultivated with the tractor than many other crops. Ronald Zimmerman, a Mennonite farmer near us grew the green slicers, beets and cabbage that were included in your shares this week.

Every season is different in the mid-Atlantic but we are pretty much where we expected to be right now as far as what we are harvesting. We should continue to harvest early summer crops such as cucumbers, beans and beets. Starting in early July, we should see our first corn, tomatoes and melons. Next week the shares should include beets, swiss chard, beans, cucumbers, cabbage, squash and maybe potatoes.

We would love to hear about how you are using your
vegetables. We are eating borscht (with cabbage) here and lots of sautéed zucchini with garlic scapes and onions. We will be skipping CSA distribution the week of July 4 since a lot of people will probably be out of town and that will give the summer crops more time to mature. See you on Monday.

Scott

What is coming on June 6th

On the Lettuce Edge — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 20:15:08 +0000

Hello CSA members.

Following is a list of what to expect from the share coming up on June 6th.

Kohlrabi
Onions
Lettuce
Turnips
Chard
Squash
Cabbage
Garlic scapes

Using that Lettuce and Jug Bay on the Radio

On the Lettuce Edge — Tue, 24 May 2011 22:55:26 +0000

First, the schedule news. Next week pick up will be on Tuesday May 31rst instead of Monday because of Memorial Day weekend. Otherwise, pick up will be at the same time and places.

some of the lettuce before cutting

Since we sent you home with those two giant heads of lettuce yesterday, you might be wondering how to use them. Long time CSA member and friend of the farm Jess Chaiken suggests this recipe or this one for Peruvian Aji sauce which takes a whole lot of lettuce and sounds amazing. As a bonus, it also calls for cilantro which was in your share. This was our very first year growing cilantro, we hope you like it. Leave a comment and let us know if you try this recipe or do something else with your lettuce.

Also, Tanya was interviewed on Greenhorns Radio, a radio show about young farmers last week. She talked about Jug Bay Market Garden, farming, community organizing, parenting and writing. You can listen to it here if you like and also follow links to learn more about Greenhorns, a fun youngg farmer organization with big plans.

In other farm news, we are in a major summer crop planting push and are working to empty the greenhouse and put thousands of plants in the ground (peppers, tomatoes, squash, eggplant, basil, other herbs etc.) We recently mowed down most of our cover crops, but here is a photo of the rye, winter pea mix that is still standing. You can see that the pollinators love this planting, and it will also enrich the soil. The Austrian Winter Pea flower is beautiful, it looks like a sweet pea flower but is so much easier to grow here in Maryland where the hot summers come too quickly for sweet peas to have time to bloom.

As far as what to expect in next week’s share, we will likely have more lettuce, onions and peas. We will also have kholrabi, squash, garlic scapes, cabbage and a maybe a few other things.

Filed under: Farm life, Recipes, Weekly Share

Week 2 Pick Up

On the Lettuce Edge — Mon, 23 May 2011 14:50:39 +0000

Our second pick up is today. Scott is busy getting your shares ready but I caught him in the house grabbing a snack and here is what he expects you will have in your shares. Depending on how things go, there may be a little give or take but here is his best guess as of 10 AM.

head lettuce
spinach
cilantro
green onions
shelling peas
broccoli
radishes

Also, everything from trees, weeds, veggies, fruit, herbs and vines seems to be flowering on the farm right now. I took some photos and will try to get a post about that up soon. We look forward to seeing everyone later at pick up.

Filed under: Weekly Share

And now starring the cover crops

On the Lettuce Edge — Fri, 06 May 2011 21:30:52 +0000

rye graas

On a farm, cover crops usually play supportive roles at best. Unglamorous crops like clover and vetch never get the shiny magazine spreads reserved for trendy heirloom tomatoes or the newest hydrangea cultivar. They just quietly hold down the soil, fix nitrogen, provide food for the pollinators and create biomass to enrich the soil. It sounds like enough to me for a starring role, but cover crops are almost always considered second fiddle to the crops.

But right now, the cover crops are having their moment to shine. The crimson clover is topped with dramatic red blossoms, the vetch is covered in purple flowers and the rye is five feet tall, a lovely blue green color and will sway in the slightest breeze. All the pollinators from miles around are feasting on the flowering vetch and clover and for added drama, all of these crops will be mowed down soon before they go to seed.

The first food crops of the season are a huge treat, but before we turn our attention to the expected spring stars — like radishes, green onions and dozens of kinds of lettuce — let’s give the cover crops their moment in the sun. It is well deserved.

(cross posted on– On the Lettuce Edge)

First Pick Up May 16th

On the Lettuce Edge — Wed, 04 May 2011 18:52:10 +0000

We are looking forward to the first farm pick up on Monday May 16th. We will have several types of lettuce, green onions, radishes and hopefully strawberries.