Updated on July 30, 2022 by Elizabeth
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Watermelon has started!
We’ve got a lovely sweet red seedless variety right now, but the yellow fleshed ones should be starting next week too! They are all good in my opinion and slurp up just right on these warm summer days. Or gobble up if you’re a chicken (hopefully none of you are chickens that have learned how to use email…). Store your watermelon in the fridge. Once it is cut, it needs to be used within 4 days.
This part is a little more educational, but I think it’s cool, and since I’m writing the email, I’m including it. Read or not as you desire 🙂
Another sign that it’s summer is we start harvesting seeds. We don’t save seeds for every crop, but for a select few, we do. Hands down, our guys’ favorite lettuce is romaine. I don’t know why, but that is what they prefer to plant. So, it makes sense that that is the lettuce we save seeds from. And since romaine is my favorite lettuce, I am a-okay with that.
So we’ve got romaine in every stage of growth possible right now.
- Flowers? Check.
- Seeds? Check.
- Sprouts? Seedlings? Check and check.
- Heads of lettuce? Check.
- And, not pictured because ew, lettuce leaves decomposing in the compost pile? Check.
Every year a couple heads are planted in an out of the way spot and just left to do their thing. This year, the destined-to-produce-seed swiss chard and romaine plants are keeping each other company at one end of our newest high tunnels. Being in the tunnel keeps the rain and wind from stealing the seeds before we are ready to harvest. Once we see a bunch of cute little white puffs, the flower stems are cut and moved to an enclosed container so the seeds can be separated out from all the other plant pieces, called chaff, and fully dried. If you ever want to question your eyesight, try separating lettuce seeds from chaff. And then they’re planted to grow into another head of lettuce for you!
