July 2024: It's Peak Farmers Market Season in WNY
News from the Farm 🥒 Growing Together 🧄 Signs of the Season Bingo Card 🥕 Farm to Table Dinner 🍎 Featured Friends Survey
News from the Farm
Boy, oh boy, did we get rain last week - 3" to be exact.
I'm so thankful it wasn't more, but such an amount in 24ish hours could have been enough to cause significant damage if it weren't for our raised/mounded/hilled permanent beds.
Last July, we received about 7” of rain in a 2-week time span, and that led to so much crop loss. There was no place for the water to go and it saturated the roots, leading many of the plants to die or not produce at the rate they typically would.
That rainfall caused me to talk with my dad and determine how we might build a tractor implement to mound the soil permanently in the newest field, in hopes that future rainfalls wouldn’t have such a detrimental effect.
So I was nervous/terrified/anxious about how this new system of mounded beds would react in the face of a significant rainfall.
There ended up being an accumulation of 1-2" of water in the walkways until Friday afternoon. I'm grateful that it was in the walkways vs. submerging our vegetables and flowers.
I know weather will always be something I have to think about, plan for, and renegotiate with as a farmer growing crops outdoors and in the soil.
I know there are things I can do and have done to improve the soil to help to make it more resilient in the face of fierce rain storms.
And I know that I love growing food for people that they feel good & confident about eating and sharing with their families.
But dang, sometimes it gives me so much anxiety that I physically feel it in my body.
Growing Together
Last week I harvested our 2024 garlic crop. Typically, I harvest the bulbs around or after mid-July, but this year’s mild winter and warmer spring have so many of our perennials and annual crops ready for harvest 1-2 weeks early.
Our Chesnok Red Hardneck Garlic (a hardneck garlic variety originally from the village of Shvelisi in the Republic of Georgia) is a long-haul trooper in the field. It’s cloves are planted individually in October and overwinter underground and beneath a layer of hay mulch. In the spring, the underground clove emerges from the soil with green growth and its roots search out nutrients. Mulching and feeding with aged cow manure continues into the spring and summer.
In June, when the new bulb attempts at creating/spreading seed, we harvest & eat the “garlic scape". Now that the bulbs have been harvested from the ground, they’re curing (drying) in our garage for the next 3 weeks so that they can be eaten for the next 4-6 months.
Can you believe our ancestors have been stewarding this one crop for thousands of years to savor as food and medicine? It takes 10 months for this one crop to grow and must be cared for intentionally after harvesting. It sees through all four seasons in Western New York, including the darkest day of winter and the brightest day of summer.
Signs of the Season
Right now, in Western New York it is peak farmers market season.
(Although, psst! There are farmers markets that go year-round in WNY, including the Lewiston Artisan Farmers Market. I was selling veggies, herbs, fruit, and flowers from my farm at the winter market from November to May!)
As a way to challenge you to soak up the farmers market season, I created this fun Bingo card to help you really savor the season and experience all that the market has to offer.
Farm to Table Dinner
Join us and our friends at the Lewiston Artisan Farmers Market for the 2nd annual farm to table dinner to benefit the market.
Last year there was a huge demand for more tickets, so Wandering Gypsy has graciously agreed to offer 2 dates this year — Tuesday, August 20 and Wednesday, August 21 at 6pm.
Your ticket gives you the chance to:
savor the peak flavors of local veggies, herbs, and fruits in a 5 course meal
relax with a locally brewed beer (thanks to Bob & Jen at Wandering Gypsy) featuring local strawberries & basil
meet folks who enjoy good food and supporting farms as much as you do
learn about the non-food small businesses that make the Lewiston Artisan Farmers Market with a fun swag bag filled with local crafts and wares
Featured Friends
I took a break in June from:
sending a 2nd newsletter
sharing Featured Friends
June, kind of beat me up, friends.
I meet many different vendors when I’m at the farmers market and know many nonprofit organizations from my past work life, but honestly, these days my sphere of influence is pretty limited with the demands of the farm, motherhood, and regular life.
For the 2nd half of the year, I want to give you, my fabulous readers, a chance to nominate a small business and/or nonprofit from Western New York that you want others to know about!
It’s super quick - just click the button below and share the name of the business or nonprofit AND why you’re nominating them.
It doesn’t have to be a long winded explanation- it can literally be, “they have the best beef on weck” or “my favorite piece of jewelry is from them”.
