Greetings,

Welcome to July! As we reach the hottest days of the year, we’re thankful for the promise of tomato sandwiches and snacking on whole cucumbers in the field. The months of July and August often seem to drag on forever. Working outside in Maryland’s summer heat and humidity is no joke!

The fields are brimming with colorful flowers and pollinators, and our summer crops all appear healthy and happy. As we ease into the hotter days, we’re preparing to bid farewell to spring brassicas. Soon, we’ll pull the kale, collards, and sprouting broccoli and give the bunching greens a break for a couple of months. If you’re a CSA member or loyal market customer, you might notice that these days, there are occasionally a few holes in your bunched greens. We’ve reached the point in the year that cabbage loopers and harlequin bugs begin to emerge in full force to snack on greens, which is one of the reasons we pull them during the summer months. Not to worry, we’ll soon seed fall brassicas in the greenhouse, and before you know it, we’ll once find ourselves eating greens galore.

We’ve been extremely busy on the farm recently, and it’s been challenging to sit down an write a newsletter about everything that’s going on. We’ve been stretched thin the past few months, as we’re growing more than we had initially planned to this year, and have fewer people working than we have in the past two seasons. Every day feels like it flies by, and at the end, I never feel quite sure as to what I accomplished. Running a CSA and relying more heavily on vegetable sales has been quite a shift for us this season. Over the past several years, we transitioned into growing more cut flowers, as it was more profitable than growing veggies, and, quite frankly, we’re very good at growing flowers. That said, we still have a deep love of growing vegetables, and even before COVID hit, we had planned to expand our vegetable production this year. We’re still figuring out how to balance everything, and it’s not easy! Each season comes with new challenges, and we’re doing our best to adapt. We hope that the fruits of our labor are bringing you joy and nourishment during this difficult time.

We’re pleased to announce that we’ll be returning to the Baltimore Farmers’ Market this weekend! We took our time deciding to return to the market so that we could be sure it would be up to our standards for safety for our market staff. We’ve missed attending the market we’re looking forward to being back under the JFX on Sunday! The market runs from 7:00-12:00.

We’ve also decided to continue attending the market at Johnny’s. We’re grateful for you ongoing support and look forward to seeing you there! We’ll be there Sunday from 8:00-11:00 am.

Produce Availability 7/5 Markets

basil
beets
carrots
collards
cucumbers
fennel
hakurei turnips
kale
scallions
shishito peppers
spring mix
snap peas
summer squash
sprouting broccoli
swiss chard
zucchini

And, as always, we’ll bring plenty of flowers with us.

Sincerely,

Amelia and the rest of the Two Boots Farm crew

We bid farewell to Alison this week, as she moves on to a new position with the Farm Alliance of Baltimore. Alison worked with us one day a week this year and last, and she’s a longtime friend of the farm. We love her and are going to miss her so … — We bid farewell to Alison this week, as she moves on to a new position with the Farm Alliance of Baltimore. Alison worked with us one day a week this year and last, and she’s a longtime friend of the farm. We love her and are going to miss her so much!

We were visited by a young praying mantis while weeding this week. It’s always a joy to see these predators on the farm.

We made it to July!