Another fantastic week for harvesting at Prospect Farm! The cherry tomatoes are coming in like gangbusters and the garden has been generous with summer squash as well, including some massive zucchini! Most exciting for this novice farmer has been the basil, which is so much lovelier than any basil I’ve ever bought, whether from a grocery store or a farmer’s market. We’re growing types of basil I’d never heard of, including lime basil, with a fragrance will bowl you over!
We’re still waiting for the big tomatoes to ripen, but the first comer is starting to announce its arrival. And! – a new sight in the last ten days has been blackberries! No one was sure whether the blackberry bush would yield anything this year and it’s exciting watching them grow in.
We did not eat for free – a harvest day usually means a work day as well. We put in a few hours staking unweildy tomatoes and cleaning up the beds a bit, making sure the little things like basil don’t get completely shaded by giant things like squash leaves. It feels good to work for my food, but this tiny taste of agricultural labor is giving me a new appreciation for the effort that goes into making food on the scale of a true farm!
Here are our totals for last week’s harvests (July 13th and 16th):
Cherry tomatoes: 15.5 pounds (plus half a pound of green cherry Ts that had fallen from the vine)
Zucchini: 8.5 pounds
Cucumbers: 3.75 pounds
Kale: 1.6 pounds
Collards: 1.5 pounds
Peas: 1.55 pounds
Fennel: 1 pound
Basil: 1 oz
Total food harvested: 33.4 pounds!
Prospect Farm 