This weeks harvest : Despite the heat and wind we are still harvesting enough vegtables for a generous share weighing more than 12 pounds. This week share will have; cucumbers, squashes (yellow, spagetti, 8 ball, patti pan and acorn), tomatoes, long beans , herbs, peppers and eggplant.
The squash beetles are back and I am hoping to keep them away with wood ashes and sesame seed oil. If i am successful my second planting of squashes will be bountiful. Squash beetles are borers that kill the plant by boring into the plant base and laying there eggs inside of the vine nearest the root base. I put the ashes on the base of the plant and the sesame oil helps it stick. hopefully this will deter them. If anyone else out there has a people friendly method to deal with these pests let me know.
The news has been full of stories about the salmonella contanmination of the Roma Tomatoes. Buying local seasonal vegtables is the best protection from these kinds of diseases . How did that mess happen ? More than likely tomatoe crops were infected by poor human sanitation practices on the commercial farms . The sad thing about this is it is impossible to find the source as the tomatoes are shipped to a huge packaging plant from many different places and mixed together. Salmonella is waterborn and well ,it is wet in those places . Those viruses will flourish given the right opputunity and enough time.
Local vegtables are picked , sold and consumed in a matter of days versus weeks on the commercial end. They are also ripe and thus loaded with antioxident nutrients that naturally fight off these germs and bacteria. Commercial tomatoes are often picked green sprayed with a chemical to make them look ripe. Because the fruit does not ripen naturally it does not reach its nutrient potential.
I believe that more people die from disease related to poor nutrition including the voluntary omission of fresh fruits and vegetables than the rare outbreak of disease from waterborne transmission to vegetable crops. I am more concerned about people avoiding fruits and veggies altogether because of the fear of contaminated food. I am saddened by this event for all people.
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I hate that more fresh veggies hit the news in a bad light, but I felt good about the fact that because I knew where my food comes from, I don't have to worry about things like that.
Hopefully this means more people will start shopping farmers markets or even raising their own.
Hmm. That spaghetti squash sounds good. Will you have any extras for the farmers market?
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