Outstanding in the Field?

This evening, some lucky folks in Madison are going to enjoy a dinner made with produce from Troy Farm and prepared by Underground Food Collective.  The sit-down dinner is going to be served at the farm, on one long table, under a tent.  Sounds wonderful, right?  Except that last night, we had an epic windstorm paired with pelting rain.  This morning, the tent was in a sorry state.  So they took it down and will be sitting near the prairie.  This might be ok, but that wave of mosquitos (and other bugs) is still upon us.  Oh, those poor diners!  When Claire gave us interns the opportunity to attend, we all politely declined because we know the truth:  those diners are going to spend their entire dinner swatting at themselves and each other and trying not to scratch fresh bites.

Most interns went around in full rain gear today, despite the heat, just to protect themselves from the onslaught.  I wear long sleeves and long pants, but I still loaded up on bug repellant.  I almost finished the bottle!  And guess what?  It still didn't keep the little buggers away.

Honestly, I was worried about today.  The rain makes the ground very soft, and the forecast predicted we'd get more throughout the morning.  Luckily, they were wrong, and when the sun came out for good around 10 am, things started drying off.  This makes our workday go much more smoothly, because we can get more done.  We had a big list:  harvest kale, cucumbers, summer squash, zucchini, herbs, tomatoes, cauliflower, broccoli, tomatillos, and sweet onions; vent the hoop house and place the tables in it; harvest the storage onions for drying in the hoop house; wheel hoe in section 2; mow the drive roads and cover crops (Claire); and generally make the farm look presentable for the dinner.  We did it all.

I also made a list of possible items to include in the share this week: sweet onions, salsa baskets, tomatoes, beets, beans, an herb choice, and possibly kale, eggplant, peppers, or cabbage.  I'm not sure if we have enough peppers and eggplant, though we could do a choice like we did last week, and I also don't know if we took all the cabbage out of the field yet.   Either way, it's a great looking share.  I'll find out Wednesday if Claire thinks my list will work.