July

We continue to harvest and to plant new seeds. This month we harvested collards, cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, arugula, chard, purple bush beans, turnips, basil, kale, zucchini, yellow squash, beefsteak tomatoes, Japanese eggplant, mustard greens, beets, cubanelle peppers, carrots, plum tomatoes, spicy mustard and lettuce. We planted Congo watermelons, yellow squash, cucumbers, flaco bush beans, birds nest gourd, soybeans, Turkish orange eggplant and holy basil. We finished watering E. 111 St., W. 108 St. and Morris Ave. with the activated E.M. As the tomatoes, squash and cucumbers grow and the fruit/vegetable gets heavier we stake and re-stake them and build trellises to support the weight of the plant and also to prevent the vegetable from lying on the ground. The barley and wheat got damaged so we had to pull them up. We pulled up the cilantro to save the seeds. As we have in previous seasons, we have been weighing and documenting the amount of produce that we harvest each week. On our most productive day so far this season (7/13/12) we harvested:
Arugula: 6 lbs.
Mustard Greens: .75 lbs.
Swiss Chard: 18.25 lbs.
Cucumbers: 12.25 lbs.
Japanese Eggplant: .75 lbs.
Yellow Squash: 4 lbs.
Zucchini: 4.25 lbs.
Beets: 1.25 lbs.
Cherry Tomatoes: 1.5 lbs.
Kale: 10.5 lbs.
Basil: .8 lbs.
Another productive day (7/20/12) we harvested:
Eggplant: 4.5 lbs.
Cucumbers: 11.75 lbs
Zucchini: 5 lbs.
Yellow Squash: 3 lbs.
Cherry Tomatoes: 6 lbs.
Beans: .5 lbs.
Carrots: .75 lbs.
Japanese Eggplant: 4.5 lbs.
Arugula: .5 lbs.
Collards: 3.75 lbs.
Approximately 60 lbs. on 7/13 and approximately 40 lbs. on 7/20. Finally, one day Jan made vegetable pizza with whole wheat crust, tomatoes, basil, arugula, parsley, eggplant and mozzarella cheese. The month of August has just begun so the temperature is hot but we will continue to harvest till the end of the season.



                                                                          - Rabbi Stacey Van Rossum