Hi,

Did you ever wonder how we harvested our giant pumpkins that have weighed over 400 pounds? Well we recently made a video of it and today we put it up on YouTube with music and everything! The URL for this video is http://youtu.be/0Uo1_j_QDBI .    I would appreciate it if you would take a look at it and perhaps make a comment. We plan on making more YouTube videos in the near future and some will be about the farm.

Guess what is the most common question we heard at the stand this past week? Well it has to do with sweet corn. No, it's not when it was picked. (The answer to this question is "today" if the corn is inside the stand and "yesterday" if its outside.) Rather, the recent FAQ is "How long will you have corn?" Here the answer is a bit more complicated, but the quick answer is until frost, which assumes the frost will occur before October 10, which it usually does. We only have two patches of corn left to pick and we will start picking one of the patches tomorrow.   The other patch (last patch) is a bit unusual since it was planted in the same spot our first corn was planted. In other words, we have double cropped part of our corn. Will it work? It depends upon the weather. Right now the ears are forming and with summer weather should be ready in a little over a week. However, with typical late September weather it will take 2 weeks which means it will likely be ready around October 1. Also,  October 1 just happens to be the average first frost date for our farm so the chances it will make it is about 50-50! BTW, the last corn is Pay Dirt and is not a Mirai so it won't be extremely sweet but will still be delicious. The reason I selected Pay Dirt for the variety to use in this test is that it is an early corn AND it is very rust resistant. Rust affects the leaves and slows down growth. BTW, the corn looks extremely healthy -- almost as good as it does in July!

While our double cropping sweet corn is a test for us, our double cropping beans isn't since it has worked for us well before. This year it has worked extremely well and we are already picking the second crop of beans from the same field! What does this mean--we have a real nice crop right now of green and yellow beans and we are again selling them by the half bushel! We try as much as we can with double cropping since farm land has shot up in price the last twenty years. In fact, land is the biggest single cost for growing crops and is the primary reason more intensive agriculture is being practiced. Another reason getting more crops off the same area helps hand harvest efficiency.

While our tomato harvest continues at a rapid pace, our special canning tomato price of $8 a half bushel will likely end by next weekend. From past experience it will be taking much more time and effort to pick tomatoes next week than this week so we will have to raise the price of quality tomatoes.

Nashle,

Tom