Market Farming

[Pat Meadows <pat AT meadows.pair.com>]

On Wed, 4 Aug 2004 09:49:13 -0400, you wrote:


>hmm, but not at CSA. I'd really like to start giving my shareholders 
>summer squash in the sizes that the recipes and buyers guides 
>recommend rather than in the twice-a-week picking sizes they are 
>getting now.
>
>Of utmost interest to me is an understanding of how a squash produces 
>if it is picked early and often. (How would I ever know? ;-)
>
>My extension agent once pointed out to me the difference between RED 
>bell peppers and GREEN bell pepper: with RED bell peppers you get 2 
>to 4 fruit per plant; with GREEN bell peppers you get 8 to 15 fruit 
>per plant (and more, I think!?)
>
>Guess which we send out!

Yes, but guess which is much sweeter and more tasty?  

Actually, I have great difficulty getting ripe peppers here
in our fairly short season, cool-night area (northern PA, in
the mountains, 1700 feet altitude).

But no matter where I've lived (including here), I've always
had difficulty getting ripe peppers because they almost
always seem to get buggy by the time they are ripe.

How *do* other people get ripe peppers without bugs in them?

(Except those who spray the ... ahem...who spray with heavy
chemicals, which I won't do.  I'll use selective organic
controls, such as Bt, if absolutely necessary, but no other
sprays.)

This year, I started my peppers and tomatoes way early, did
a lot of extra work transplanting them into ever larger and
larger containers, gambled and got them transplanted out
early, covered them up with sheets at night numerous times:
and won the gamble.  I've had earlier harvests of both this
year than I ever have here before do, and I have a good
chance of getting a reasonable harvest of ripe peppers:
except for the bug problem.  Which I'd appreciate any advice
on.

Pat
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