Harvesting Brassicas & Preparing for Chef Fest

Village Farm Team,

Our purple graffiti cauliflower and belstar broccoli have been swiftly growing since first producing their heads. Due to their quick growth, we will be harvesting some of each for the veggie wagon on Saturday. In addition to these delicious members of the brassica family we will also have bibb lettuce, dinosaur kale, and red mustard greens. Make sure you stop by on Saturday from 8am to noon to take advantage of our beautiful harvest.

In order to stay on top of our growing and harvesting schedule, the farm team is always thinking two steps ahead. For example, the harvesting on the North Farm is done with the purpose of freeing up space for our tomatoes. The tomato transplants are quickly nearing their planting stage so we have to ensure that they have a place to go when the time comes. Once the tomatoes are planted we can seed for other summer crops. In order to maximize our efficiency with seeding, the greenhouse has been meticulously organized. In addition to shelving for our seeding materials we have a brand new compost container built by Farm Educator Adam.

Last Saturday we were able to fill one of our planters on the North Farm with help from the attendees of Farm Fun Day. Thanks to their hard work, we now have an entire planter of fordhook giant chard! Did you know that you can get multiple harvests out of a single chard plant? Once the mature outer leaves are harvested, new leaves and stems will continue to grow.

In addition to the day to day farm operations, the team has been hard at work preparing for Chef Fest! We are just a little over a week away from this delicious event featuring twelve of the region’s top chefs. There will be something for everyone from vegan dishes to meat-centric ones and an array of desserts to satisfy your sweet tooth. To read about each participating chef, check out the Chef Fest website.