Sprout Farm Newsletter        July 22, 2023           open 9-5 daily          sproutfarm.net

Hello Everyone,

We have corn, most days.  I've been on the road to East Bridgewater MA to pick up the corn at a beautiful farm but like most farmers these days he's having problems with weather, insects, etc.  I think I've been leading off these newsletters like this for months.   When I picked up the corn this morning he told me it was machine picked so there may be a few kernels at the tip that are crushed but it is still good corn.  He was right the corn is good.  So I said, "Do you have a machine to pick corn?"  I would have been very surprised if he had said yes.  He said he got up at 2:30 AM and traveled to a farm in Worcester for the corn.  So We can still identify the farm where the corn comes from and I really appreciate the trouble he goes to to make the corn available.  I tend to get home from a corn/blueberry  around 10:45 to 11:00. We will probably take down the tomato signs for a week or so.  We cut the tomato vines in the tomato house that have been providing the tomatoes since early June.  They have done their job and now it's time to put in the new plants for our late fall crop.  The tomatoes in the high tunnel are starting to ripen so we will have a few every day but they don't last long at the stand.  The field tomatoes are very green.  We have lots of cukes and yellow and green squash.  Jay is digging some potatoes every day and new potatoes are a treat.  The guys harvested the garlic this week and set it out to dry.  I was surprised to see how large the heads were.  The suppliers recommended planting only the large cloves but Jay had the room so he planted all of them and I'm glad he did, they all produced respectable heads of garlic.  There is still time to plant carrots, beets, turnips and cabbage if you want to plant cabbage.  Keep an eye on your tomato plants.  The Barnstable County Farm has come and gone; it is time for the tomato hornworm to put in an appearance.  If the leaves at the top of your tomato plants look like skeletons, please look for that big green worm with the red horn.  What you do with it after you find it is up to you but I recommend you remove it from your plant. 

    I remember traveling in France on a trip many years ago and the narrow village streets were lined by walls with one door for the home and garden.  It seemed like every Frenchman was a serious gardener.  The story went that after WWII France was able to recover faster than Germany because the populace was used to growing their own food.  We will be selling our garlic because we weren't raised in families who cooked with garlic.  The garlic that Jay harvested would be the perfect amount for one French family for a year.  Well, maybe two families.  It makes me stop and think how much gardening the French incorporate into their everyday life and family tradition.  There is one tradition we are now encouraging now that small paper bags cost us 10¢.  Please BYOB, bring your own bag.   I had saved up dozens of bags from Stop & Shop and they were recycled at the stand in just a few days.  My Stop & Shop strategy is if I only have a few small things and I didn't bring my own bag, (you know we all leave them in the car), I go to the produce section and use one of the tear off plastic bags to bag my small order.  The bags are very strong and surprisingly roomy.  We have those same bags and they cost far less than the paper bags.

I'm going to spend a little time collecting some seeds and planting them in time to vernalize the plants over the winter.  If I do this right I will have a few more perennials ready to bloom next year.

The kitten report. Ziggy had her kittens four days ago, two weeks after Tux had her kittens.  True to form Ziggy found a half filled box on the top of a shelf in the basement and quietly started her new family there.  Even standing on a chair it was difficult to see the kittens.  The most important thing is that she had two orange kittens.  Everyone is doing well and Ziggy is constantly begging for more food and we are happy to comply with her wishes.  Jay came out to the garden where I was busy weeding and he said, "Hey, are you keeping secrets?"  My life is an open book with absolutely no secrets so I gave him my standard blank stare and said, "Secrets?"  "Ziggy has five kittens, not four."  No one was able to count the kittens until he moved them to a nice open spot in the bathroom.  I went into the house to really check out the kittens for the first time only to see Ziggy dashing down the cellar stairs.  Wait, there's only two orange kittens in the new spot when there should be five.  What's going on?  Ziggy is moving the kittens.  I waited at the foot of the stairs and saw her going into the craft room with an orange kitten in her mouth.  Anyone who has seen that room will seriously doubt her motive for placing kittens in a room with glitter and other stuff waiting for a good cleaning.  Like Tux, Ziggy found a narrow place under a small table and tucked her family into that corner of the room.  We could dismantle the table but she went to a lot of trouble to settle them there so we'll leave her alone for a while.  I expect Jay to start bringing out kittens to the stand in a couple of weeks.  Tux's kittens are still getting their sea legs so they have some growing up to do.

That's all for now.  Stop by and say hello and we'll see you soon.

Jay and Phyllis Sprout