Harvesting new plantings of summer deliciousness

The temperatures cooling down is showing a slight change of season but we still have new plantings of summer veggies beginning to be ready to harvest.

Last week we started to harvest our fourth succession planting of summer squash of the season.

It is already providing a nice boost as the previous three were slowing down significantly. A couple of the varieties we barely have had any squash to harvest.

As we enter into September where many of the summer veggies start to reach the end, it is a beneficial to have younger plants ready to produce that are full of energy.

It is hard for the plants to strive all summer while dealing with the hot weather and long days of sun so planting multiple successions allows us to move on to the next ones that are ready.

Last week we got the first fall crops direct seeded in the field and we are already seeing the first few start to germinate.

The hakurei turnips are germinating first and they will grow quickly with the warm weather and sunny days. We can’t wait to be munching on the delicious and juicy turnips along with all the other fall crops.

This week we have directed more veggies along with planting lots of lettuce yesterday. Hopefully by the end of this month we will be harvesting the first of the lettuce.

Today the hours for the Wednesday Davis Farmers Market with the end of Picnic in the Park. The hours are 3-6 p.m. in Central Park and will be that through the winter.

This year we trialed a couple of new watermelon varieties this year and we have been picking the Tendersweet Orange the last few week. Just this week we are starting to harvest the Orchid Watermelon.

It is a seeded yellow orange flesh watermelon that is smaller in size at around five pounds each. They are a very sweet and refreshing watermelon.

Remember to not put watermelons in the fridge until right before you eat them as if they are in the fridge for too long the flesh will get mealy.

We are getting close to the end of our watermelon season as we are on the last plantings of all of the varieties.

There still is some more time for melons as we planting more successions especially later in the season including one very large one that we will see if it will be ready before the temperatures get too cool.