Yes, fall planting proceeds! I knew it was inevitable and have been watching out of the corner of my eye, and luckily I looked at the calendar this weekend and realized we had reached August 1. For Hattie’s Garden, that means fall planting. As a farmer, we do expect to be very busy during the “high season,” and indeed, we have been busy.

Then August comes and we realize we are probably going to be even busier! Not only does our summer help begin to trickle back to school, but the harvesting does not let up and we must begin putting in our fall crops. As we move through this juggling act, we are amazed at how much we manage to get done in a day while still retaining a modicum of sanity.

Here at Hattie’s Garden we plant something every week anyway, but in August, we must begin planting our fall carrots and other root crops such as kale and other greens (including plenty of lettuce!), and some of our flowers and herbs. We may also put in some “late” green beans and thankfully, we already planted some nice patty pan squash that should come your way in September. Farming is an amazing juggling act, a symphony of activity and in the end, an extremely satisfying pursuit for dedicated and passionate farmers.

What’s Available This Week

The following will be available on Wednesday from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. at the Historic Lewes Farmers Market (HLFM) located at Kings Highway across from Crooked Hammock Brewery, Thursday and Friday from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. at Hattie’s Garden located at 31341 Kendale Road in Lewes, and Saturday from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. at the HLFM located at George H.P. Smith Park. If these times/dates do not work for you, please email Hattie to make other arrangements.

This Saturday, the HLFM will host the Tenth Annual Tomato Festival that features fun and games and tomato creation tastings. As in previous years, the tomato festival will pair HFLM tomato growers with local Delmarva chefs to create wonderful tomato dishes for patrons to sample. Hattie’s Garden will be one of the participants in this activity. Sampling will take place from 9:30 until 11 a.m. while still available.

Hattie’s Garden Cut Flowers

Hattie’s Garden will feature Lisianthus again this week, including ‘Echo‘ in a range of colors and ‘Mariarchi Blue Picotee‘ which is a beautiful white flower with blue rim. We have lots of nice cut flowers and can make you a custom designed bouquet or you may choose from the bouquets already created.

Besides our beautiful lisianthus, we are cutting the premium Benary giant zinnias, spectacular gladiolus, beautiful tall blue ageratum, gorgeous gomphrena, colorful double-click cosmos, and feathery plumes of celosia.

Hattie’s Garden Produce

Our sweet cherry tomatoes are becoming beautiful and we have a large number. We “cull” our cherry tomatoes for imperfections and also wash them so you can munch on them right away!

We are also picking blackberries and the heat has made them very sweet!

We continue to cut arugula each week, but please come early, or come to the Garden to be sure to get some. We have bush beans, including yellow wax and green beans, and perhaps a few boxes of haricot vert.

We will harvest the last of our Hakurei turnips for the summer with more coming in September.

Deep Grass Organic Produce

If you can come to the Garden on Thursday or Friday, we are able to offer some organically grown staples from Deep Grass Organic. This week we will have Yukon Gold potatoes, Red Potatoes, Shallots, Garlic, Cippolini and Onions.

Yours in the Garden & at the Markets,