Reflections from Ford

The Adrenaline Rush is starting to wane and the exhaustion is settling in. Its been intense on the farm since March when we first started planting plants into the ground, way back before all of the changes that we've all had to make. I'm so very thankful that we're all safe and healthy.

All in all its been a good season so far- Our biggest battle right now is raccoons, deer, and other critters eating all of our sweet corn.

Today marked the 1st real preparation for planting strawberries- I can't wait!

Your farmer,
Ford

In Season

Veggie of the Month - Watermelon

We usually plant watermelon from May – July and it takes about 80-90 days from seed to harvest. We sow two main varieties, Crimson Sweet and Sugar Baby, for Farm Share members. Watermelons grow well in warmer weather and enjoy well drained, healthy, warm, sandy soil. About a week prior to harvest, we will reduce the irrigation to increase the sugar content and sweetness of the melon.

To ensure a successful growing season of watermelon, Sustainable Harvest Farm plants a “trap crop,” which is a crop that is grown to attract the cucumber beetle. The cucumber beetle is an insect that transmits many plant diseases that can kill the watermelon plant. This type of beetle likes lots of different vining crops like cucumbers, melons, squash, zucchini, etc. Ideally, we hope that the cucumber beetle will spend most of its time in the trap crop. We then will either burn the trap crop to the ground or we will create a greenhouse over the trap crop and then close the greenhouse up for several days. The temperatures inside the greenhouse will get hot enough to kill the cucumber beetle. Another challenge to growing watermelon is deer pressure. They will smash the watermelons open so they can eat the sweet melon inside.

Watermelons are fairly easy to grow if disease pressure is low and we have favorable growing conditions. Non organic farmers are able to add a systemic insecticide that kills most of the insect pests that transmit disease and are also able to spray some pretty effective chemicals on the plants to stop disease.
A commonly asked question we get is – how do you know when a watermelon is ripe? There are three signs that help determine this. They are:

The tendril on the plant next to the stem of the watermelon is dried
The watermelon has a “thunk” instead of a higher pitched “tink” sound to it when it is thumped
The bottom of the fruit has turned from white to a creamy white

These signs will work for about 90% of the melons. Unfortunately, the other 10% may or may not be ripe… so we apologize in advance if you get one of those not quite ripe ones!

Watermelons grow on top of the ground and are usually picked or harvested between the last week of July through mid-August. Unfortunately, disease pressure typically increases during the “dog days” of Summer when watermelons are ripening. It can be extremely frustrating to grow a crop for 2 months and have disease wipe out all the effort during the last two weeks before picking. That is the risk and reality of farming!

To ensure farm-freshness, we will wash the melons to remove dirt after picking and then carefully pack them in the Farm Shares to prevent them from damaging other produce that month. Nothing says summer like eating fresh watermelon!

Insights

Meet the SHF Team

Introducing Jeff Fox. Jeff has been working with Ford since last fall on helping with various sales and marketing initiatives for Sustainable Harvest Farm. In 2019, he resigned / semi-retired from a career in the paper industry where he held various brand, advertising and marketing roles. Jeff and his wife, Renee have been friends of the Waterstrat family since relocating to Lexington, Kentucky from Wisconsin back in 2012. When he is not working with Ford and their efforts for “world dominance in Farm Shares,” Jeff enjoys practicing and playing golf, doing artwork and banging on his acoustic guitar. He also recently started up a marketing consulting business called Tundra Fox Marketing, LLC to help small businesses with their marketing efforts. Although Jeff has probably eaten more Little Debbie snack cakes than vegetables over his life, he has a new appreciation for them based on the Sustainable Harvest Farm marketing work, and is truly trying to eat more veggies and fruits in his diet. And, will be the first to admit their family dog, Rocco (a Cavalier King Charles rescue) eats and loves kale much more than he does!

Farm Factoid

The hard-working team at Sustainable Harvest Farm's most favorite crop to harvest is watermelons.

Reminders

Trades / swaps permitted and encouraged
As the summer growing season comes to a close and we get into the fall season, we wanted to remind you to take advantage of being able to swap Farm Share items to ensure your complete satisfaction. Our portal makes it easy and gives you full visibility of the contents, and if you have head room to add more or if you have incurred any additional costs with your swaps.

Sigh… I missed an email
Our ordering portal allows you to enter multiple emails for your account so whether you're home or away, at work or at play, you’ll never miss an email about your Farm Share.

Ready for your late summer / early fall vacation?
Don’t forget to place your Farm Share on hold before you head out, or offer it to a friend and have them pick it up for you. True friends help friends eat healthy and look out for their well-being!