Recovering from Chef Fest & Monitoring Freeze Damage

Village Farm Team,

We had an amazing turn out for Chef Fest on Sunday! The dishes created by our 10 chefs were a mouthwatering homage to the spring season as well as their unique cooking styles. From Chef Evelyn Garcia’s green curry with roasted spring veggies to Chef Jane Wild’s smashed potato with mushroom carnitas and fennel pico, everything was incredibly delicious and beautifully plated. After seeing so many different preparations of local vegetables we’re eager to bring some of that inspiration into our own kitchens.

Now that Chef Fest is over we are back to planting summer crops. We seeded more summer squash adding both Yellow Crookneck and Patty Pan to the mix. We transplanted Sunset Fall, Indigo Rose, Champion, and Arkansas Traveler tomatoes in addition to Sunflowers and Nasturtiums. More tomatoes in the ground means more trellising to install. We’ll be prioritizing trellising over the next couple of days to ensure our tomato plants have the support they need to combat the high winds in the forecast for this week.

Though it’s balmy and near 80 degrees today, last week at this time we were experiencing freezing temperatures. At the end of last week we were able to assess our crops for any potential freeze damage. Unfortunately, our green beans did not make it so we’ll be re-seeding them this coming week. We lost about 20 percent of the tomatoes we transplanted despite our efforts to cover them with frost cloth. Luckily we have an abundance of tomato transplants in the greenhouse so we won’t have to worry about re-seeding.