Market Notes for August 9, 2025
Brief Notes from Henry
(probably with more detailed Food & Farm Notes to come from Terra tomorrow, when she’s back home)
First of all, I encourage everybody to come early — not only because it is going to be hot, but because I want to leave the market as early as possible to start Hiroko and my annual two-day weekend vacation. (My normal weekend is one day, Sunday, since I'm at the market on Saturday and back to work on Monday.)
We are going to a folk music festival at Paul Gaynor's White Oak Savannah Farm in Dodgeville, Wisconsin. Paul is an old friend from our days together in Nepal, but that’s a story for another time.
I will have lots of elderberries this week — look for the blackboard announcing a special price when you buy two. And be sure to buy 2, or multiples of 2, since you’re going to want a make a lot of Elderberry Elixir!
I'll have some muskmelon and watermelon, but not as many watermelons as last week.
I’ll have lots of cucumbers and okra, and the shiso and basil are coming on strong. Try adding a bunch or two of shiso to your basil pesto for a flavor and nutrition boost!
The tomatoes are ramping up very slowly, so don't expect much more than last week. The plants are already over head high, so starting next week we will have to use stilts to trellis the tall varieties. I do expect the plants to start producing more tomatoes eventually.
There will be lots of beans of all sorts this week, and I expect to get a small amount of the first edamame this week.
And we are getting very close to the end of the beets and carrots—until the fall plantings are ready to harvest months from now.
Farm Notes: Getting the fall crops in the ground — better late than never!
Speaking of fall crops, we finally got our first fall planting in this week. That's two to three weeks behind when I try to start fall plantings, but it was too hot and too dry — and then during the cool weather last week, it was too wet. Now it's too hot again.
We watered everything right after planting to try to get the seeds germinated, and the plants up and growing quickly. “Everything” included beets, carrots, chard, arugula, mustards, kales, chois, radishes, turnips, lettuce, and more.
Weather permitting, I will plant every week from now through mid-September. But it is already so late that I can only plant beets and carrots one more time. And this was the first and last chance for me to sow radicchio, napa cabbage, broccolini, and rutabaga. So we will hope for the best.
