Inspections, bye to Jake, and hello mud

It's been a busy couple of weeks here at Minglewood since the last posting. We had our annual farm inspection from NOFA-NY for organic certification. They usually come in the fall, but I guess they're trying to get a jump on things this year. The farm looked pretty good - a lot less weeds than what would typically be found in the fall. The inspection takes a couple of hours and includes a review of all our records, and a walk through the fields and greenhouses. All seems to have gone smoothly and no issues or concerns were brought up.

Sadly, this past week we wished a fond farewell to Jake, one of our most dedicated workers for the past year. If you've shopped with us at the Saratoga Farmer's Market, you have no doubt met him selling plants or tomatoes. Jake started out working at the farm with the idea of perhaps pursuing a career in organic farming, but after seeing the realities of the job, decided to work towards a better world in other ways. He leaves today, driving west to California to attend U Cal at Pamona for a graduate degree in sustainability. We wish him the best of luck, and we are sure he will be successful in anything he sets his mind to. We will miss him greatly.

We have started attending Wednesday markets in Saratoga. We skipped the first couple of the season, mostly because we just didn't have enough produce to make it worth going. Until this past Saturday, we've been selling out of everything an hour or two before the end of market. Finally, this past week crops have started to come in abundance and we have a nice selection on the table for almost the full market. This week we had all our salad mixes, sprouts, baby boc choi, stir-fry greens, salad turnips, radishes, spinach, and a few mushrooms and asparagus bunches. Plant sales continue to be strong - selling almost 600 tomato plants at the Memorial Day market.

Back at the farm we continue to get more and more crops in the ground. We planted the last field tunnel with bell peppers, and seeded the first planting of green beans. The weather continues to taunt us - a light frost on May 26, and then three days of rain. Yes, we needed the rain, but now we have gone from dust to beyond mud. I felt so bad for the crew harvesting on Friday, literally past their ankles in muck and goo! There was no way to get vegetables clean, no matter how many times we changed the wash water. So customers, please wash all your vegetables, even though they may look clean, they are not. Let's all hope for some reasonable and moderate weather in the weeks to come.