Down with Kartoffelkafers!

Hello!

The calendar claims that it’s July, but with the cool wet weather I’m starting to wonder! I seriously can’t remember ever wearing jeans and a sweatshirt on July 8. It’s hard to complain since a typical July 8 would be hot and humid. If the weather holds, THIS WEEKEND could be the first comfortable SUGAR CREEK ARTS festival in years. (It’s usually either a thunderstorm or uncomfortably hot and humid.) The Garlic Press will be open all weekend and will have AWESOME food made with Blue Schoolhouse veggies. Be sure to stop in at the Press to get your lunch or dinner during the festival.

We so appreciate all of you coming in last Saturday to the market to buy veggies! What rotten weather!! A special kudos goes out to loyal customer Marilyn Townley, who braved the bad weather only to be doused by a few gallons of cold, wet rain water UNDER our tent. (She thought she was safe under the tent – HAH!) You really have to watch the edges of the tent, even where the two tents come together in the middle. The rainwater collects in the sagging parts of the tent (a common problem with a 7-YEAR-OLD tent!) and then dumps over when a breeze comes through and lifts up the fabric. Marilyn was a trooper!

This week we hear that there’s another slight chance for rain. We hope that’s not the case, but if it is … you know where to find us. At the market, under our pathetic tents. Bring an umbrella, and use it under the tent. Ha ha.

This week’s exciting new vegetable is the cucumber. A cool, crisp cuke is one of summer’s best features. I never liked them until I had Bill’s. The ones in the store and on the salad plate at a restaurant are usually tough-skinned and slightly bitter around the edges. Not so for a Blue Schoolhouse cuke. Be sure to check them out.

There will also be even more summer squash (a.k.a. zucchini), big Walla Walla sweet onions, tasty broccoli, and much more.

It’s worth mentioning that Bill has had a major victory over the potato beetles this season. By relocating the potatoes to a completely new location where potatoes haven’t grown in decades, Bill thought he would have very little beetle pressure. Unfortunately, the beetles found the potatoes. So he’s had the interns and our little boys out there squishing potato beetles for weeks. He also adopted our friend Dave’s method of beetle removal, which involves tennis rackets and baskets. He lightly whacks the potato plants with the rackets, dropping the beetles into the buckets, and then does a little dance on them. He could also just dump them into a bucket of soapy water, but he really likes the dancing part.

Our friend Kevin found some great information about potato beetles online. Apparently, the potato beetle is native to the United States and has proliferated throughout the world. During World War II some propaganda in Europe suggested that Americans had intentionally released the beetles in Europe for diabolical reasons.
Check out these web links for more (it’s truly entertaining!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28N6TSaKQ-g (video with subtitles)

http://www.potatomuseum.com/exPotatoBeetle.html (potato museum with beetle history)

http://potatobeetle.org/memorabilia.html (propaganda posters)

The best part of our potato beetle research is the German name – kartoffelkafer! The boys now refer to them as such. It makes them sound very well-traveled.

This will be the last week for salad mix for a while. Don’t miss it!

Here’s what we’ll have …

Green beans (boatloads – please buy some, as they are a killer to harvest)
Dragon tongue beans (yellow wax beans – even better than green beans, although they look funny)
Summer squash
Potatoes
Carrots
Shallots
Fennel
Kohlrabi
Swiss chard
Head Lettuce
Beets
Onions
Garlic
Salad Mix
Kale
Collard Greens
Basil
Parsley
Broccoli
Radicchio
Cabbage

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to call us at 309-467-9228. You can also email us at blueschoolhouse@yahoo.com, although during the farm season we can’t guarantee that we’ll be checking the email as often as usual.

Best,
Mercy