
Tomatoes are definitely past their peak. We still have some, and should continue to have some for at least the next month, just less. It's been one incredibly challenging season for tomatoes; I've never had to work so hard for a tomato as I have this year. We've been putting every spare moment we have into keeping the vines producing. It's been paying off, but in slow pennies, not quick dollars.
Cucumbers: we're down to just the little sweet Diva cucumbers, and not a lot of them. In good years or bad, it's typically just the cucumbers' time to go right now. Same story for the squash. The insects and disease pressure get so high by August, there's not a lot we can do to keep squash and cucumber plants producing, especially since we do not use insecticides or fungicides. I think we can squeeze another week or two out of both, then that's it until next summer.
Our first planting of cantaloupes are done and sold. We do have a second planting that should be ready soon, they're just not quite ripe yet. We'll have lettuce for at least another week, maybe two, then we're going to have about a month-long gap. We need to plant more summer lettuce roughly every 2-3 weeks to keep a continuous supply coming in, and that hasn't been possible until very recently. Just one more crop on a long list of crops we couldn't get planted while we were underwater. I think we managed to pull enough sweet onions before the worst of the rain to last at least a few more weeks.
If you like bell peppers and eggplant, August is your month! Both came through our monsoon season relatively unscathed, and both hit their peak in August. If you've never had a 'Rosa Bianca' eggplant, give one a try! Rosa Bianca's are an heirloom variety from southern Italy. Not only are they pretty as a picture, they're also sweeter than a globe eggplant, with a much firmer texture. These are perfect cut into "steaks," marinated, and cooked on the grill for simple summer suppers.
But if peppers and eggplant aren't your thing, please don't give up on us. We put a ton of time and energy into trying to keep a continuous supply of a wide variety of produce. Whenever the nature happens to throw us a curve-ball or three, we tend to see a big drop in our market sales. Even when the produce starts flowing back in abundance, it's very difficult to get that momentum back. We keep working our tails off on the farm every day, trying to keep it all coming in, scrambling to plug the holes in our harvest and planting schedules. We grow year-round, 12 months a year, and harvest at least 50 weeks out of the year. We've already made a good dent in our fall-crop planting.
So it's not over. It's just a blip. Thank you all so much for your continued support through one of the more teeth-grinding, white-knuckled summers I've ever experienced...