Ah, this is always the time of year that I neglect my blogging duties. However, I finally have some news that is noteworthy: Fruit Shares are starting next week!
Fruit shares are sourced from Country Mill in Charlotte and the Tennes family. We should have blueberries for all those that purchased the additional share, then we’ll start right in with peaches and apples. Some of these items will be conventionally grown, but we’ll try to work it out with anyone who would rather have organic, so that everyone is satisfied with their choices. Please remember that we’re still experimenting with the idea of offering these shares, so let us know how we can improve.
As for the rest of the title of this post (weeds and more), I felt as though I needed to lament about the ridiculous weather. Again, things are growing strong, but we seem to have more disease than ever this year. Since Michigan is a leading producer of many vegetable crops and thus the extension services in this state are fairly strong, I hear disease alerts all the time from various agencies for various crop groups. It seems that many incidences of blights and mildews of vining and solanaceous plants have been reported across the state. Unfortunately, this problem reaches all people, not just commercial cucumber and tomato farmers. Many of these diseases are carried by the wind, so they might eventually spread to your garden.
Anyway, long story short, if you see any weird leaf patterns, or slight wilting that progressively, but quickly, gets worse, you may want to consider looking into organic options for saving your plants (if you have the time). Around the farm, and moreso this year, it seems like a never ending fight to keep everything disease free.
On the bright side, all the hard work keeping the blights, mildews, infections and general pestilence away from the plants has paid off… Paul says we’ll be harvesting our first muskmelon very soon and the farm crew sampled the first ear of corn… oooh it was good.
Pics soon I hope…
