Hello from Pitchfork & Crow~

We’ll be spending the day harvesting for the Salem Saturday Market!  Here’s what we plan to bring to market:

• Basil
• Beans (Green, Purple, Yellow!)
• Beets
• Broccoli
• Bunching Onions
• Cabbage
• Carrots
• Chard
• Cilantro
• Collards
• Cooking Greens Mix (Kale, Chard, Collards, Cabbage, Parsley)
• Cucumbers (a few slicing & lemon)
• Kale (Red Russian & Lacinato)
• Onions (sweet & purple torpedoes)
• Parsley
• Peppers (green peppers & yellow banana)
• Purple Hull Peas
• Summer Squash (yellow straightneck, zucchini, & pattypan)
• Tomatillos
• Tomatoes (cherries & slicers & a few heirlooms too!)

We began harvesting onion bulbs for the CSA several weeks ago and have been bringing some to market the past couple of weeks.  Last night we harvested the remaining sweet onions and we’ve laid them out for a few days to cure in the sun.  We grew two varieties of sweet onions this year, a yellow round bulb and a purple torpedo variety.  The yellow variety is called Siskiyou Sweet and is from Siskiyou Seeds, a small seed company in southern Oregon.  These onions are a reselection of the classic Walla Walla onions folks tend to be familiar with.  The purple torpedo variety we grew is called Red Bottle and is an heirloom onion from Italy.  We’ve been enjoying both varieties for their mild, sweet qualities.

We’re growing three other types of onions, including yellow cippolinis and yellow and red storage onions.  We’ve yet to begin harvesting these, but they won’t be far behind.  Storage quality is the limiting factor, which is why we’ve begun with harvesting the sweet onions.  They aren’t long term storage varieties and we get to enjoy them while they last.  As I’ve mentioned in the past we sow many successions of some crops such as lettuce and broccoli, but we only had one spring sowing of onions.  The bulky bulbs we’re harvesting now were sowed into flats at the end of February and grew in our greenhouse until they were transplanted in the field the first week of May.  Having watched these alliums grow from tiny seeds into large bulbs certainly feels like an accomplishment but also a milestone as we work now towards wrapping the growing season up.  We already have flats of overwintering onions in the greenhouse to be transplanted into the field soon and we may direct seed more before mid-month as we’re looking ahead to next spring.

This week though, we get to enjoy the bulk of this season’s harvest with a variety of tomatoes, peppers, and summer squash, plus onions too!  We hope to see you at the Saturday Market between 9am and 3pm.  The Salem Saturday Market is located at the intersection of Summer and Marion streets NE in downtown Salem.

Thanks!
Carri Heisler and Jeff Bramlett