We have two sweet corn plantings maturing at the same time. This will shorten our sweet corn season overall. It won't go as far into September as we hoped. The two varieties we are picking now are the bi-color Montauk and the all white Silver King.They are both very sweet.  Silver King is the highbryid of Silver Queen. Silver King holds sugar better that is old silver queen so it stays sweeter longer. August is a good month to enjoy sweet corn. I have had people here purchase corn on Wednesday and say they will enjoy it on Saturday at a cookout. I say "no you won't!" It won't taste good more than two days after picking. It might look good but the sweetness will be gone.  We have two more plantings of corn after these two are done. We are planning on cooking a lot of Silver King for the fair.

We have a huge amount of ripe tomatoes in the patch. However the sauce tomatoes are only 3/4 ripe. All other tomatoes have loads for picking. The heirloom varieties are great for sauce when combined with other salad types.

Now is a good time to come for large amounts of tomatoes from the pick your own patch. The heat and high humidity has kept people from picking the last few days and many tomatoes are ripening every day. The result is large quantities of ripe tomatoes of many varieties. So come on down and stock up on your winter supply. Do you know that you can freeze raw tomatoes whole in ziploc bags? We have customers that have been putting tomatoes by for winter use in many ways however this is the easiest I've heard of so far. Just cut out the core and put them whole into the bags, date and freeze. When you defrost them, the tomato pushes right out of the skin! Viola, it is that simple and you have local tomatoes for sauces or soups all winter long. I also cook up sauces, cool and pour into ziplocs or tupperware and freeze.

In the morning we'll be picking corn, pulling onions, digging carrots, cutting flowers, assembling bouquets, and at some point planting trays of lettuce. The first of several rows of sugar snap peas are in flower. This is the first time we've sowed them this late in the summer. It is an experiment that looks like it may yield a crop! We may have sugar snaps in another week or so!

It is definately a good feeling to go into the shop and see the baskets loaded up with dew covered ears of sweet corn. We are picking from a new planting this morning and don't expect to run out.

The tomato patch has many varieties with ripe tomatoes ready for picking. The three varieties of sauce tomatoes have many red ripe tomatoes. It is a good time to come pick some quantity tomatoes. We have to think about this tomato picking situation carefully as I know some folks want to come out in one trip and pick 80 -100 lbs all at once. I don't think that is always the best way to go about it unless you are willing to use many different varieties. If you want to pick sauce tomatoes and heirlooms only, then it would be best to pick over the course of two different visits. When I blog about availibility it goes out to many people and if several folks want 80lbs all on the same afternoon the red ripe tomatoes get picked off quickly. What I am trying to suggest is coming out more than once for your sauce tomatoes if possible as I don't want you to miss getting them. I enjoy pulling my canned and/or frozen tomato sauce out all winter long. I use them mostly for winter soups and sauces.

We have many farmstand vegetables however our spinach and lettuce has bolted and the new plantings are not ready.

Randy has been discouraged every morning when he goes out to pick the day neutral strawberries. The tarnished plant bug population was very high and still seems to be. We tried an organic spray one time however there are so many insects that have already layed eggs on the blossoms that we just need to wait them out as they usually slow down in August. We can only hope. The tarnished plant bug overwinters in surrounding field edging and it crawls so covering with row cover won't help. Next year we can try using a trap crop however we don't know if that will draw them in from other areas and just increase the populations. We are sorry to all the customers that are waiting for fresh strawberries. At this time we only have 6 or so pints every morning, not the 30 to 40 we hoped for. We are unsure at this time if we will get better results in September. Last year we picked until October 11th, the first hard freeze of fall so we may still be able to pull out some berries later on.

The pick your own tomato patch has plenty for those looking to make a batch of sauce but not numerous enough for quantity picking. If you want 10-20 lbs of mixed tomatoes you will find them however they won't all be really red ripe.  If you are curious then come on out and walk the patch to get an idea of what is coming. They are $1 per pound red or green. The green tomatoes are loaded of course. It is a good time to pick them.

I have many flowers ready for cutting and had the honor and great fun of cutting flowers for a friends daughter's wedding. I cut 10 buckets of flowers, showed them how to make the table arrangements and sent them on their way. It was great fun. If you are having an August or September wedding and have your priorities about where you want to invest your money then give me a call and we can talk flowers.

Today we have summer squash, zucchini, onions, garlic, picked tomatoes and fresh dug carrots. Our lettuce and spinach bolted mid July due to the heat and the swiss chard slowed down. I have some chard on the farmstand this morning but will probably run out at some point. I have to go check the beets, maybe they are large enough today. I've been waiting for weeks to pick this planting!

The Pick Your Own tomato patch is just coming on and had quite a few people yesterday resulting in low amounts of red ripe tomatoes today. The picking this early in the season is down in the center clusters so you have to get down low to find them and pull them out. We have 16 varieties to chose from. There are many tomatoes starting to turn a little red right now. Later this coming week or into the weekend there will be many tomatoes for picking. There are many tomatoes to come, the picking is just beginning.  If you are looking to pick green tomatoes for your relish etc then come on over as there are large amounts of those at $1/lb.

Sweet corn will start on Monday at 9am. The variety is Mauntoc and I'm probably spelling it incorrectly. It is bi-color, large eared and sweet. Randy enjoys picking his corn young, so if you are looking for over mature milky ears you will be disapointed.

I copied and pasted the following info from Slow Food's site as today is the picnic:

The 4th Annual Slow Food Seacoast Down-on-the-Farm Picnic brings home the idea of local food production at Lauren Chase-Rowell’s permaculture homestead in Nottingham, NH, with the theme of Weeds & Seeds! A Celebration of Summer’s Bounty. Come see how one family has created a low-impact living space that is sustainable, self-sufficient, and ecologically connected to the natural world. BYO picnic gear and a potluck dish to share, and enjoy a relaxing afternoon in this diverse landscape with outdoor activities for all ages. This event will be held rain or shine. Click on our Events page for more information. P.S. Volunteers attend free!

Randy made the decision to open the tomato patch for Pick Your Own beginning July 27th.  It is not ready for any large quantity picking quite yet but has enough for those wanting fresh tomatoes for salad or BLT sandwiches etc. We will let you know when there is enough for quantity picking. It may be loaded up as soon as this weekend.

Sweet corn will be ready sometime between Saturday and Monday.

Today we picked off the peaches. It is not a big crop this year at all. I expect we will sell all of them in a few days.  We don't spray our peaches with anything  The late freeze in May must be the culprit although the buds seemed undamaged at the time.  The peaches grew to about half size before most of them began dropping off the tree. I need to speak with a tree fruit specialist or seasoned grower to learn why.

We pulled our first onions and dug carrots yesterday and today. Our Warren farm carrots have lots of character. Gratefully they don't need peeling as it would be nearly impossible. I am posting a photo of them in the gallery. Although strange and funny looking they are very sweet.

We wish to thank our customers for a very successful raspberry season. The raspberry season is now over. We are open daily at our farmstand with tomatoes, carrots, summer squash, zucchini, pickling cucumbers, flowers, garlic and soap. We also have blueberries, honey, and maple syrup from neighboring farms. We anticipate the beginning of limited pyo tomatoes by this weekend and fresh picked sweet corn by Aug. 1st. Our fresh picked strawberries are struggling with the hot weather but are slowly getting more numerous. As this is the first hot summer wih this variety, we are unsure how soon we will be at full speed.

The raspberrry beds are now at the stage of late season picking, which means there are berries but it takes alot of work to pick. We will allow picking for a few more days for those who still desire a small quantity of berries. Fresh picked raspberries have ended. We do have fresh picked blueberries from Emery Farm at our farmstand. Fresh picked strawberries are re-beginning and will be hit or miss for a few more days until we get quantities enough to keep the farmstand stocked. Our hours are Mon-Fri 9am to 6pm and Sat and Sun 9am to 4pm. We do have a bounty of summer squash, zucchini, pickling cukes, lettuce, tomatoes, garlic and swiss chard at our farmstand. Sweet corn and pick your own tomatoes will begin soon.

Beginning Wednesday July 21st the farm will open at 9am instead of 7am. We are not getting that many early raspberry pickers lately and we have a lot of vegetables to pick for the farmstand every morning. Our new hours beginning July 21st will be Monday thru Friday 9am - 6pm and Saturday and Sunday 9am -4pm.

The raspberries still have fair to good picking and we expect to have these conditions for another week or so. This means there is plenty of berries, it just takes a little more time to fill your baskets. We've had a few customers this morning already pick 12 pints in less than 2 hours. Also I find that bending over and looking up under the leaves unviels a whole new cache of berries that most people don't see.  Children see these berries quite easily.

Strawberries will be back on the farmstand in good supply by August 1st. Our second planting of sweet corn will be ready sometime around August 1st and Pick Your Own tomatoes will begin about the same time. PYO tomatoes will be $1/lb. We have heirloom, sauce, red and yellow cherries, saladette and large salad types.   We lost our first planting of sweet corn to the weeds. Most farmers use an herbicide in their corn fields but we don't and during June strawberry season we did not cultivate it regularly and the weeds took over.

The sugar snaps are finished for now. We have more planted and growing in the field for late August? We hope to have more sugar snaps into the fall. We will see how they grow as this is the first time we have tried to have them late summer.

Although we are past the peak of raspberry season the picking is still good.  Raspberries can still be found in the Boyne, Latham, Killarney and Taylor rows. The Taylor need some pruning to be more prolific next year, however they still have berries.

The farmstand is stocked with fresh picked raspberries, a few strawberries and field picked lettuce, tomatoes, S.squash, zucchini, pickling cukes and fresh garlic.

I have been cutting big beautiful Sunbright sunflowers, small Sonya sunflowers and many other flowers from the cutting garden. Come on by for a sustainably grown bouquet. Compare the vase life and carbon footprint of flowers shipped from South America to our field grown flowers.

The Mustard Seed in Nottingham is holding the 2nd day of their open house.  Herb walk with Salandrea at 9am. Wetland and woodland walk at 10:15, Bear Paw at 11:30,  Protecting water and community at 12:15, Fantacide-killing yourself with food at 1pm, Aimee and Denny Perrin talk about their journey towards health and eating raw at 2pm,  Astrology intro @3:15pm, Letting go ceremony for rebirthing at 4:30pm, and rebirthing drumming circle at 5:15.  There is also activities including building fairy houses, chair massages, music, intuitive readings, and Salandrea's Eco-Farm Project. Bring family and friends!

Nottingham holds their farmers market today and I believe it is from 1pm-4pm.