This time only 1/3 of a bed with 2 rows needed to be harvested and with two other workers we finished in a 1 hour or so. We tied the garlic in bunches of ten to be hung for curing. Some of the garlic grown was for another CSA. Mud Creek Farms is also part of a larger food co-operative in Rochester called the Good Food Collective. This week Erin is providing garlic and herbs.
Then we harvested thyme with scissors. Thyme is a bushy plant that smells a lot better than garlic. We sat in the fields in the heat giving the thyme haircuts. We filled about 1½ Rubbermaid type containers of this herb.
Finally we seeded starter containers of lettuce. We picked the summer varieties – the ones that do not bolt (or flower and go to seed quickly) that can tolerate the hot weather. Normally lettuce and other greens are cool weather plants so special varieties needed to be chosen. The plastic seed beds were about 18 inches wide and 24 inches long, and have small 1” containers. There are about 128 spots for seeds. Lettuce seeds are small like caraway seeds. A cardboard paper holder is used to hold the seeds and its folded long opening is gently slanted to let out one seed, and gently pushed in with a paring knife. Sometimes two get into the spot and well two seeds are there for germination, especially if the seed is black and the soil is black. To finish the day we took the sprouted broccoli and kale (about 3 weeks old) and transplanted them in to larger intermediate size plastic beds. Ater this stage they will go directly into the ground.
It was about 95 degrees and I didn’t get any bee stings.
