this week at market {april 28}

Hello from Pitchfork & Crow ~

We’re harvesting for the Salem Saturday Market!  Here’s a selection of what we’ll be bringing to market:

  • Cauliflower (our overwintered cauliflower is on!)
  • Celeriac
  • Kale Bunches
  • Potatoes (Only fingerlings this week)
  • Prize Choy
  • Radishes
  • Rapini (Kale)
  • Rutabagas (aka our infamous juicing Huge-abagas!  We hear they make good fries too.)
  • Spinach
  • Spring Salad Mix (finally, lettuce based this week!)
  • Sunchokes (aka Jerusalem Artichokes)

We’ve been at full speed this past week, planting the first crops into the field.  The tables we use for hardening off transplants have been nearly emptied and we’ve direct-seeded the next rounds of carrots, turnips and radishes as well.  Over the last several days we’ve transplanted peas, salad mix, head lettuce, spinach, beets, cabbage, broccoli, kale, fennel, and kohlrabi.  Needless to say we’ve been busy, but we’ve also had an eye on the weather.  Black storm clouds routinely threatened our progress but we luckily made it through the majority of our planned plantings and the rain and thunder storms mostly passed us over.  It’s hard to believe that soon we’ll be irrigating these crops.

As with last week’s market showing, we’ll have less to offer than we’d like.  However, this week we’re happy to bring you the results of our first lettuce harvest of the season!  We’ve mowed the chicories to make way for other crops and are diving into the gorgeous lettuce we planted in the field house last month for salad mix.  Also, we’re excited to bring the bulk of our overwintered cauliflower to market this week.  We’ve heard tales from other farmers suggesting that cauliflower that heads up after the long months of winter tastes the best, so we put in an experimental bed this past fall.  Are you ready to experience Leamington’s Winter Giant cauliflower for yourself?

We hope to see you Saturday sometime between 9am and 3pm.  You can find us at the Salem Saturday Market near the intersection of Winter and Union streets in downtown Salem.

Thanks!
Carri Heisler and Jeff Bramlett