Weekly Farm Report
From Friendship Farms & Fare
Week of October 12, 2015
A Community Service To West Pasco’s Urban Agriculture Community
For the full report, go to:
http://media.wix.com/ugd/643592_ac3f94170aab4a72a9fa948d4766cc3a.pdf
Planting & Harvest Notes
Winter Seeding and Garden Starts Underway
Garden Starts: Collards, Kale, and Broccoli in the South Gardens. Collards, Swiss Chard, and Kale in Old North Garden.
Harvest Notes: herbs, red malabar spinach, Okinawa spinach, sweet potato leaves, basil, and culantro
Fall Seeding and Garden Starts Continue
About Half the Gardens are Planted
We are making good progress on the fall gardens. We have installed beds of collards, kale, and broccoli. We have many more beds to go. Next up will be swiss chard, and we’ll probably try some tomatoes and bell peppers. We will devote at least 6 beds to broccoli, and probably more.
Summer Season Over
This report is the last one to include summer crops. The summer season is now passed. We still have sweet potatoes and SP leaves. There is one bed of SPs remaining, and we have about 20 lbs on hand.
Arugula
Samples Available
One of our fall favorites, Arugula, is doing well. We have leaves available in limited (sample) sizes this week, but we should have more than previous weeks. The plants have not really taken off yet, but they are healthy and strong.
Red Malabar and Okinawa Spinach
Our summer spinaches are slowing, but we’ll have sufficient quantities for any who are interested.
Sweet Potato Leaves
Plenty For A Few More Weeks
Sweet Potato leaves are our oldest summer greens, and beloved by many. We still have some available and will for one more week. Shares that request are getting 1 gallon bags of these delicious and nutritious dark green leafy vegetable.
Grand Gardens Coming Soon
Friendship Farms & Fare Teams Up With Other Growers:
Two New Community Gardens Planned in East Madison Neighborhood
Look for news on the opening of the Grand Gardens in New Port Richey soon. 3F is participating with Ecology Florida and other local organic agriculture organizations to establish a substantial community garden just west of the East Madison neighborhood on Grand Boulevard in New Port Richey.
Grand Gardens is one of two new community gardens in the East Madison neighborhood of New Port Richey. Joining in this 3F and Ecology Florida in the project are East Madison Growers and Nature Coast Real Food Project.
Two property owners have committed to having 3F use their vacant lots for community gardens. The New Port Richey Environmental Committee has approved both lots for gardens. We are currently receiving applications for garden plots.
Financial support will be greatly appreciated. If you would like to share contributions with Friendship Farms & Fare in support of the new Grand Gardens or any our other projects, your gifts will be gratefully received. We’ll share an acknowledgment of your gift and our warm thanks. We are also happy to report that contributions to Friendship Farms & Fare are tax deductible.
You can mail contributions to:
Friendship Farms & Fare
PO Box 596
New Port Richey, FL 34656-0596
Garden Overview
Fall seeding has recommenced, and we planted our first fall bed – collards in the old north west garden. We started quite a lot of broccoli seeds.
Harvests of okra and SP leaves are declining. Eggplant has slowed dramatically. Sweet potato harvests have been improving, slightly.
Now is the time to begin planning the fall garden, and we are doing that. Try seeding, if you like. It is still very hot – probably too hot for fall crops. It is getting late, so we’ll take our chances with starts. We’ll be planting swiss chard, collards, kale, and (of course) broccoli. We’ll continue to work with tomatoes and bell peppers.
See the Share Report for all items.
For all plantings, we use seeds from our collection or heirloom seeds from Seed Savers Exchange (http://www.seedsavers.org/).
Sweet Potato Update
446 slips planted
101 pounds harvested
We harvested 8 pounds this week, bringing our total to 101 pounds.
We will fall well short of our goal of 400 lbs. We will not even get as much as we did last year (250). In fact, we’ll be lucky to come close to our first major harvest (in 2013) of 150 lbs.
Harvest was likely smaller due to heat and rain.
We can include SPs with all shares. We have various sizes (medium to fingerling). We’d like to move the fingerlings, so let us know of those are okay. Most are good quality (A), but not excellent/fancy (AA). There is a little scaring on some.
In 2013 we harvested 150 lbs. Last year (2014) our harvest was 250 lbs. This year we are still aiming at 400 lbs., although the first rounds are not particularly encouraging.
Okra
88 pounds
Okra has dropped off significantly. We managed only four pounds since the last tally. Our total is 88 pounds.
At most we’ll have only a few more pods this season. We’ll include with shares that have ordered okra in the past.
We are doing some advance planning for an Okra Event in mid-June, 2016. Let us know if you are interested.
Sweet Potato Leaves
Plenty For A Few More Weeks
We are harvesting sweet potatoes now, so the leaves are gradually on their way out. Sweet Potato leaves are our oldest summer greens, and beloved by many. Shares that request are getting 2 gallon bags of these delicious and nutritious dark green leafy vegetable.
Try some, if you have not yet. Some folks prefer the flavor and texture of SP leaves to more well-known greens, like spinach or kale. Here is a site with nutritional information on SP leaves and links to recipes: http://www.epicurious.com/archive/blogs/editor/2012/08/cooking-with-sweet-potato-greens.html
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Visit the Friendship Farms & Fare website for the Weekly Farm Report:
http://www.fffsite.org/#!report/c1tuh
Friendship Farms & Fare is a branch of Ecology Florida, a not-for-profit corporation. Contributions to Friendship Farms & Fare and Ecology Florida are tax deductible. To learn more about Ecology Florida, please visit the website:
http://www.ecologyflorida.org/
If you would like to support our mission and individual projects, you may share donations through our website (above) or at our mailing address:
Ecology Florida
PO Box 596
New Port Richey, FL 34656-0596
Friendship Farms & Fare reaffirms, restores, and advances agrarian ideals to reestablish a sustainable culture
http://www.fffsite.org/
Natural, Economic, Cultural…bringing three ecologies together to regenerate a resilient future for all.
PO Box 596 ● New Port Richey, Florida 34656-0596
Ecology Florida advances the harmonious integration of healthy natural, cultural, and economic ecologies to regenerate a sustainable world
