By Director of Land Stewardship Jean Wiedenheft
By Director of Land Stewardship Jean Wiedenheft
Your garden at home may be on a similar trajectory as The $64 Tomato, or it may be the sort of garden in which you watch in curious amazement to see what fruit is growing from the compost pile. You may have already purchased canning jars, visited the Ely seed lending library, or you may still be thumbing through the catalogs to see what new varieties of pea sound tasty.
At Etzel Sugar Grove Farm, as at most businesses, there is another layer of questions we have to ask. Will we have the labor to successfully plant, weed, and harvest the crop? Are the seeds we are purchasing organic? Do we have buyers for the crops?
Every year, as we become more familiar with the site and the time involved in crop management, as the soil becomes richer through cover crops and certified organic amendments, and as we have improved infrastructure (such as driplines for irrigation), we should be able to expand our offerings.
Stop by the Creekside Shop during harvest time if you want to experience these tasty and unique fruits and vegetables. All will be certified organic.
This year, we plan to grow:
Sourced from Wood Prairie Family Farm:
Keuka Gold potatoes
Sourced from Seed Savers Exchange:
Parade cucumbers
Waltham butternut squash
Sweet Pea Currant tomato
Moon and Stars (Cherokee) watermelon
Cream of Saskatchewan watermelon
Chinese Miniature gourd
Miniature Yellow Bell pepper
Long Island Cheese Pumpkin
Sourced from High Mowing Organic Seeds:
Red Carpet F1 onion
Cortland F1 onion
PMR Delicious 51 cantaloupe
True Love F1 cantaloupe
Sweet Gem Snap pea
Sugar Ann Snap pea
2 Comments. Leave new
Please let me know how large the parade cucumbers are. Are they the size i=of gherkin if they are picked when small. How long do they get?
Janelll,
The land team picks them at about 5” long and 2” wide.