It is that time of year again when we say goodbye to our wonderful summer helpers. Here at Hattie’s Garden, we have been lucky to have Anna and Zoe Kelly again this summer. These “old hands” have helped at Hattie’s Garden almost since the start of the garden back in 2004. Considering that Anna is entering her last year at William and Mary, and Zoe is still in high school, you know these are some well seasoned farm hands!

We do hate to say goodbye as these two have provided us with indispensable assistance to keep things running smoothly during the hottest and busiest days of the garden. These young people measure up to the best of the best when the pressure is on. Anna adopted the flowers several years ago and manages the beds for us all summer. We were so grateful when she decided to spend another summer with us this year. We are going to miss her very much when she embarks on her chosen career.

Zoe, we hope, will remember how much fun it was to work in the hot sun, through heat and humidity, cicada killers and velvet ants and be covered from head to toe with mud some days, sweat on other days.

Never do these two shy away from the job and we laugh when we realize the bugs and the environment they great on a daily basis would probably send most of their friends into a panic attack. Zoe is very cool, commenting on the buzzing cicada killers while Hattie is running away from them. Anna casually mentions she has dispatched the first velvet ant of the season, but doesn’t feel the need to wear shoes to protect her from the horrific bite, should she step on one. (The Velvet Ant is a member of the wasp family and is also known as the “cow killer” due to the severe pain of a sting!)

And so we hope you will come by our tent on Saturday at the HLFM and say goodbye to them both. We will then proceed to scramble through the rest of the summer and through Labor Day without them. It will be a sad day for us here at Hattie’s Garden, but we know the experience and knowledge these young people have gotten from their hard work at Hattie’s Garden is something they will take with them wherever they go … and that is one of the reasons we do what we do.

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.

Hattie’s Garden Produce

Hattie’s Garden will have freshly cut and washed arugula, kept cold in the cooler and plenty of cherry tomatoes. We cull our tomatoes so that what you get are unblemished, washed and beautiful. We should also have a few larger tomatoes this week, some hybrids (grown for TASTE, not those hybrids you find in the supermarket) and some heirlooms. Lettuce will be back on the menu in another week.

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.

All our flower bouquets come with a packet of plant food to help them stay fresh, which should be at least a week.

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,