Sungold shortage

Dane will be at Matthews, Maria at Yorkmont, Marcel at Davidson and Jason at Tailgate Market.

We will have:
Beefsteak , Gregori, Mecklenburg and Pink Tomatoes
Beautiful Yellow Squash from a new field.
Dane will have gorgeous green zucchini from the same field.
Butternut squash at Yorkmont and Matthews
Potatoes at Yorkmont and Davidson
Dried tomatoes at Davidson - few.

Sungolds:

Every year we plant more and more sungolds.  They are popular because of their high sugar content.  Plus, they have that great orange color. With the heat and rain, they have been producing  at about 70% capacity.  Which is funny because usually with the heat, they produce really well - but the rain makes them pop their skins open.  As a seed delivery device - popping open when the rain comes by is good.  As a highly desired sugar delivery device for humans - not so much.  We have promised all of our sungolds this week to our larger delivery customers (restaurants and country clubs).  We have a new field that is coming along - then we will have "too many" again.

What to do with plastic:

We use drip tape and black plastic for row cover and irrigation for about 2 years or longer before we lift it up and renew our fields with manure.  One of my goals is to be able to get away from all the black plastic or to recycle it.  Dean Mullis told me that other growers would like to recycle their Ag-plastic too.  Somewhere along my travels I got on a governmental news letter that speaks of garbage issues in the state.  I was pleased to see the following information about plastic recycling.  I had lucky Jenny pursuing this earlier in the summer and she had hit a sort of dead-end with it.  I hope this contact ends in a darn good lead.

"Recycling Agricultural Plastics - North Carolina is home to numerous farms and nurseries that utilize agricultural plastics. When the growing season has ended or when these plastic products have outlived their usefulness, they are generally destined for a local landfill. However, there are growing recycling options for items such as plastic flower pots, nursery trays, greenhouse cover, bale wraps and other agricultural plastics. DPPEA is working on developing a network for "AG" plastics recovery and encourages local governments to contact us for information about how to develop programs to recover these products.  Check our markets directory at www.p2pays.org/dmrm/ for our new listings using the search terms, "Plastic" and "Agricultural Plastics". For further information, contact Tom Rhodes at (919) 715-6516 or Tom.Rhodes@ncdenr.gov."

I like this quote:

"A man of words and not of deeds is like a garden full of weeds." -
Anonymous from page 151 The Winter Harvest Handbook -Eliot Coleman

Almost lastly:

Here is a picture Arron took out in the field of a baby birds nest.


I have more news - but you may have to wait until tonight or tomorrow to hear it.

--
Maria Fisher
www.fisherfarms1933.com
704-239-5255