Experimenting with Baby Greens & Transplanting Herbs

Village Farm Team,

In case you hadn’t noticed, it’s mighty hot outside! Just like there are some people that don’t prefer the heat of summer, there are many crops that don’t thrive in our late summer heat. Tomatoes for instance are more of a spring and fall crop in our climate as most varieties can no longer pollinate new fruits once daytime temperatures reach 92 degrees or night time temperatures reach 85 degrees. We’ve been working diligently to come up with supplemental crops to go with our late summer standbys like okra and eggplant. So far we’ve been able to successfully add microgreens to the crop lineup and we’re hoping to soon add tender baby greens. We seeded mizuna, radish, bok choy, and hakurei in the raised beds by the model homes in order to harvest them while the leaves are in their “baby” stage. We’ll keep you updated once we start harvesting.

Our lovely border of sunflowers has transitioned into sunn hemp as our favorite cover crop swiftly grows. Growing sunn hemp and other cover crops like sorghum sudangrass in the unused portions of our fields allows us to fix beneficial nitrogen to the soil and develop more plant biomass. And, once these cover crops are mowed down and left to decompose in place, it builds back up the soil carbon. Healthy soil is crucial in order to produce a delicious and plentiful harvest!

We transplanted a couple of new herbs into our raised beds this past week: papalo and epazote. Papalo, sometimes called Papaloquelite, is an herb that is commonly grown in Central and South America. It has a pungent flavor that is reminiscent of cilantro, arugula, and rue. It is frequently used to flavor salsas and tacos in Mexican cuisine. Epazote is an aromatic herb native to Central America with flavor notes of oregano, anise, and mint. It is commonly used to season beans and stews.