
We grow three different varieties of cucumbers: regular garden cukes, English cucumbers, and 'Diva' cucumbers. Diva cucumbers are always the earliest, and I think the tastiest - think small, sweet, nearly seedless snack-sized little cukes - yum! The other two types will be along shortly. Carrots are available again, and these are available in bunches of just orange carrots, or wilder-looking bunches of a mix of orange, yellow, and purple roots.
Did I say onions? We lost the bulk of our main onion crop in those ridiculous monsoons last June and July, so forgive me if I seem a little too excited about fresh sweet onions! We try to have some sort of oniony thing available year-round. Leeks and scallions are great, but it's 'real' onion season now! We grow sweet Vidalia-type onions, but we can't call them Vidalias, or Georgians tend to get a little cranky. Trust me, I've eaten Georgia-grown Vidalias, and I've eaten my own sweet onions, and I can't tell the difference. So they're just "sweet onions," wink-wink. At the moment our onions are still 'wet' and uncured, and will come to you looking almost exactly like they appear in the picture above, although cleaned up for market. You can use the green tops just like you would a scallion.
We always seem to have far too many extra onion plants after setting out the main crop in late winter, so we plant the extras at closer spacing for some early scallions. After a bit, the onions start to bulb up, but never get very big - these are the 'baby sweet onions' listed this week. These babies are fabulous used in place of pearl onions, skewered onto kabobs and popped on the grill, or just a different size for those of you who want daintier portions of onions.
Some of our early-spring crops are going to fade away quickly in the dry summery heat we've seen of late, so be sure to get your fill now. Pea fans: we're probably looking at just one to two more weeks for peas, then they're done for the season. Maybe two more weeks for head lettuces, ditto for collards and radishes. The cauliflower has succumbed to the heat already...that may have seemed like the shortest spring cauliflower season you've ever seen. We can usually squeak out a few weeks' worth of cauliflower in the spring, we will enjoy a much longer season of it again late fall through early winter. Kale and chard will usually continue on through late June - our Tuscan kale isn't gone yet, but we've been cutting it hard, and need to let it re-grow for the week.
Thank you all so much for your business, for some fabulously busy farmers markets in recent weeks, and have yourself a great week!