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News from the Field

A little over halfway through the season and it finally rained. What a contrast to last year—we haven’t had a single vehicle stuck in the mud this season since April. In any case, we’ve made good use of our irrigation system this year (it sat idle most of last year) and have managed to keep the crops coming. Lettuce has been, and hopefully will continue to be, consistent and abundant. Other greens have been somewhat scarce but are beginning to come into their own as summer’s heat tempers a bit. Herbs have been slow growing with the dry weather, and unfortunately our first several plantings of basil succumbed to a destructive new disease—we’re hoping that a late planting we made will escape long enough to provide us with fresh basil in the late season. Tomatoes—also in contrast to last year—have been beautiful, abundant and (most importantly) delicious. If you’ve been putting it off, now is the time to think about canning, freezing and making big batches of sauce and salsa—we’ve got volume discounts on first quality and second quality tomatoes. We’re hoping for a long, gentle descent into the low temperatures of fall, allowing our summer crops to persist well into September. As many have noticed, eggplant have been problematic for us this year—we had a brief flush, but production shut down as temperatures climbed above ninety for extended periods, cooking the pollen and causing flowers to drop. The same thing happened, to a lesser extent, on our peppers, but both crops will bounce back and continue to produce as long as the weather stays mild. Summer squash and cucumbers have been a bit shy for much of the season, but have been in evidence and will continue to produce—we have one more late planting that we haven’t begun to pick yet. Melons and watermelons have been abundant and exceptionally tasty, but their decline is imminent. Bean production should continue strong well into September, and we still have several blocks of developing corn, but there may be some gaps in availability. The hot, dry weather in July led to lower than usual germination in our carrots—we should have carrots on a regular basis, but we may be hard pressed to offer large bags at the end of the season. Other root crops look good though, with turnips, potatoes and beets available now, and daikon, rutabaga and parsnip coming later in September and October. Winter squash appears to have fared well, but the heat caused everything to mature earlier than usual, so now we must rush to get them out of the field. Acorn and delicata-type squash should begin to appear around the end of this month; other varieties will be available somewhat later as they require time to cure. The cooler weather of late summer and fall is when broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage and Brussels sprouts come into their own—we’ve had lots of broccoli and cabbage lately, which should continue for some time, and cauliflower should begin to mature within the next week or two. We won’t begin to pick Brussels sprouts—which were seeded in late May—until October. Onions and garlic, harvested in July and August, are still abundant, but we typically run out of garlic in September and onions before the end of the season. Our last, large planting of leeks looks like it may provide through the end of the season. The real success story of this exceptionally dry season is the apples. Despite some sunscald and excessive dropping due to insufficient moisture, the crop looks fantastic—high yields of beautiful, largely unblemished fruit in many varieties, with outstanding flavor to boot. We have begun to pick a big crop of the regional favorite Macoun, which will be at perfection for the next couple months. Popular newcomers Gala and Honeycrisp are also already for sale at the stand—long-storing, sweet-crisp Gala looks like an exceptionally good crop, with lots of variety in size for the perfect lunch box snack. Our later apples, including Empire, Liberty, Spencer, Jonagold, Senshu, and our exclusive varieties (which we used to refer to by number) Sister of Fortune and Early Spy, also look phenomenal and will begin to appear during the second half of September. Each year presents its own unique set of challenges, opportunities, triumphs and disappointments. Despite the vagaries of a given season, we strive for a consistency of quality, freshness and availability that our customers can rely on, just as each succeeding year we rely on their patronage, loyalty and good will. We hope that, whether you have been a Hutchins customer since the 1970’s or have just discovered us, you have found your way here already this season, and left with bags full of inspiration, sustenance, flavor and optimism—and we hope you continue to visit as the harvest builds to its crescendo, and you continue to find all those good things and more gracing our shelves.