Week 4!

The Name of the game is... weeding!

Once upon a time there was a kitchen garden. In that kitchen garden there was a cheerful red shed. Inside that cheerful red shed hung a whiteboard with a magical list of tasks that kept growing and growing, much like the squash and tomato plants outside. The interns tended to it carefully, adding new things to do each week and pruning off completed tasks.Lately most of the tasks have involved weeding; the rain and sunshine have given rise to very healthy crops of crab grass, mugwort, nettles, and other fun additions to the garden. This week we tackled the butternut squash, parsley, hoop house, and bush beans. On Tuesday we went to Bellair and helped weed eggplant and pepper beds.In the midst of weeding we made an exciting discovery; the first ripe tomatoes! There were only two this week, but the warm weather this weekend and upcoming week should help them along. The green bean bushes are also ramping up production too and we hope to start giving those out soon. Initial taste tests of both tomatoes and green beans were (no surprise here) absolutely delicious. I, for one, am excited about wading through green beans and tomatoes plants instead of prickly squash plants!

The first ripe tomatoes!

Our weeded and significantly more orderly hoophouse

Speaking of squash, we tilled three beds on Thursday and planted them with a second round of summer squash, pumpkins for the fall, and some cover crop to help rest and rejuvenate the soil. After work in the garden, Holly and I helped our fantastic bee keep extraordinaire Paul Legrand collect honey from the hives in the back of the garden.

bees

Fridays, of course, are CSA harvest days, which means no weeding for us and lots of delicious produce for you! Here's this week's share:Stay tuned for more tales,Mikaela Ruiz-Ramon, MKG Summer Intern