Sprout Farm Newsletter       Sept.,21, 2024    sproutfarm.net   open 9-5 daily

It finally arrived!  Fall is here.  We have the pumpkin to prove it.  Bright orange- check, strong green handles- check, perfect for pies and carving- check, locally grown in Plympton -check.  If fall is here, why do we still have corn?  We're fortunate to get our corn from the brothers in Bridgewater who plant their fields for a long, long harvest.  We have both butter and sugar corn and white corn, for you white corn fanatics.  We have nine varieties of apples, including Macoun and Honey Crisp.  We have bosc pears and I won't talk about the purple plums which have a very brief season. 

    The tomato season is virtually at an end.  There are young plants in the tomato house but the tomatoes are the size of a marble so don't hold your breath.  To my mind those plants are giving us practice on how to fight common diseases like powdery mildew.  November tomatoes don't have high demand and we don't get many so all things work for the good.  In the meantime we have slicing cukes, zucchini,  leaks, New Zealand spinach, bulb fennel, herbs, lettuce, dried cranberries from Decas Cranberries in Carver, winter squash, mums, straw bales and corn stalks as soon as the rain clears out.  We still have some bagged soil on sale so don't pass up that bargain.

   YouTube is still serving up some interesting videos and these may help you at the check out.  Tap to pay or contactless payment.  All the new credit cards are equipped with this feature but many consumers and merchants are slow to adopt new habits, especially financial ones.  We have a card reader that actively reads RFID signals contained in your credit cards.  The cards are passive and the readers are active.  What I didn't realize is that the tap to pay feature is safer to use than the swipe or the chip. This first video is from the Wall Street Journal.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7dWigI7Soc.

  The story behind the contactless payment is interesting but this next video from a frequent traveler calls into question one little, tiny bit of information.  How close do you have to hold the card to the reader  to complete the transaction?  This first video says one to two inches, actually 4 cm but who readily visualizes cm's anyway.  Our frequent traveler tells stories of people who have had their cards charged with purchases when the card never left their wallets.  Now that is disturbing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F89Vi5L-6jg  Is there a way for a reader to reach out and read your card at a distance?  I don't know but I am familiar with security claims made about Faraday bags but I have never seen any woman with any sense of style be caught with a faraday bag.  They define ugly, at least the ones made in America.  Glean whatever useful tips  you can use and use the tap with confidence.  It beats struggling to find the slot to insert the chip.

    There is nothing to report about kittens.  Jay received a text from someone who showed several pictures of our cat Simba.  Of course Jay deleted the text but it turns out that Simba is dining off the charity of the good people at Willow Bend.  He is a friendly beggar and we will feed him if he shows up for breakfast but he doesn't like other cats looking at him while he's eating.  "Mommy, he's looking at me"  so he puts on his hobo hat and coat and looks for a friendly face.  He does come home occasionally just to see if I left the butter dish uncovered but his visits usually end up in a spat with one of the other cats and off he goes again.  He is two and a half years old, neutered, he has all his shots, is relatively healthy, does not like to be held and has this thing about butter.  There is no need to call animal control.  If no one feeds him, he will return to one of his two official homes. 

Stop by and see us soon,

Jay and Phyllis Sprout