Garlic Is Being Harvested Now! Check Back for Garlic Sales Dates. July 30th will probably be our first market back with garlic

WeeBee Farms won't be at market for most of July, but we are planning to be back with garlic July 30th, or possibly earlier. Be sure to check back for updates as garlic sales get closer! In the meantime we'll be harvesting, sorting and cleaning the garlic and taking a little break from market.

So far the garlic harvest has been good, overall, with a few disappointments like small German Extra Hardy. A few bulbs have shown sign of disease- but only a small percentage so far. Compared to last years disappointing harvest due to our big hailstorm - it's been a huge improvement!

Early harvest! Watch the leaves- harvest when half of them are brown!

Some of our garlic is ready to harvest earlier this year. Probably due to the heat, and possibly being under- watered. We harvested the "Turban" types on June 15th, about 5 days earlier than usual. Some of the regular season garlic is ready early, and we just finished pulling the Inchelium Red- about a week earlier than usual. Keep an eye on your garlic leaves! (Growers- see note below photos)

Using the tractor harvester

Tzan (Mexican Red)was harvested June 15th

Tzan

Note to growers. This year it has been hard to tell when the garlic is ready to harvest. The 2 bottom leaves have browned and fallen off, and the tips are very brown/ yellow, but some of the bulbs are still not fully formed. TheChesnok Red just had it's scapes harvested

Curly time!!

This will probably be our last Saturday at market until later in July when we come back with garlic. We will have a few coolers full of garlic scapes this Saturday the 25th so come by and stock up. If you know of a restaurant or someone having a big church dinner who would like a LOT, please pass the word on!
Here is a photo from 2004- much is the same but we are calling them by their official name of scapes these days and the price has gone up to a whopping $1.50/bag!

See you Saturday and stay posted on when the first sales of garlic bulbs will be....

Garlic scapes are here!

We will have garlic scapes for sale this weekend!

Also plants for your garden: Peppers, Cucumbers, Squash, Melon, Tomatoes and Flowers.

Scapes will be at market from now until June 25th (or possibly July 2nd) being at the peak on June 18th.
Harvesting Your Scapes- (Hardnecks only) Clip or break the central seed stalk when they make a loop, or shortly afterwards (usually in June.) Clipping the scapes will give you larger bulbs. (However your bulbs will store longer if you keep the scape on.) Eat the scapes!
How to use: Put in your eggs, beans, potatoes, pasta, soup - anywhere you would use garlic. Make pesto (puree with olive oil and salt) and spread on bread, sandwiches, pizza crust. Sautee for a minute, add salt and serve as your pasta topping. You may want to cut off the bottom part if it is tough, and the tip. You can use the flower part in your food if you like. They are great grilled whole too!
Scapes will store for 2 months in the fridge in a plastic bag.
Harvest time comes about 3 weeks after scapes. Stay tuned for a post on when to harvest garlic (or search posts from previous years)

Garlic Report

The garlic is looking superb!!

Our garlic on a stormy evening May 29th

The ideal winter conditions (good snow cover, cold temps, not too much drying wind) have made for a nice-looking crop with big, tall garlic this season.


We are starting to harvest some scapes, and predict harvest will start July 1st for the main types of garlic.

Look for garlic at market starting July 30th!

Come before noon tomorrow. We're across from the Teahouse for Creekfest day! Pepper and Tomato plants available!

Look for us directly across from the Dushanbe Teahouse tomorrow. Free Parking at the RTD lot for easy access. (from Canyon go north on 14th, enter from Walnut).
Hope to see you there!

Sweet Peppers • Hot Peppers!

It's finally getting close to time to plant peppers!  We will plant ours around June 10th (they can often go in a bit earlier in Boulder). They do NOT like cool ground temperatures! (The peppers just don't thrive if planted too early.) We have gotten a good crop of peppers every year for the last 20 years with the late planting strategy. Some will have to be covered when we get the first frost in September or October. Most of the green ones will turn red by September, some in August.

We have many kinds of hot and sweet peppers. Many are ready to sell at market on Saturday including our very favorites that grow well at WeeBee Farms.  For hot peppers we are growing Jalapeno, Anaheim, Ancho (Poblano), Serrano, Hungarian hot wax, Bulgarian Carrot chile, Santaka hot Asian. The Sweet Italians are our favorites and we have Oranos, Belcanto and Jimmy Nardello. For Bell Peppers we have King Crimson- a very tasty early Bell.  Also look for Lunchbox mini sweet peppers . These are all varieties that we have grown here and have produced well for us. And we are trying two new types: Shishito (http://www.highmowingseeds.com/organic-non-gmo-seeds-Shishito-Pepper.html)and Fatalii.

Fatalii Pepper is Fiery Hot-

Fatalii pepper

Fatalii is a new pepper for us, a type of habanero, but matures a bit earlier. (Habaneros usually don't grow well here since the season isn't long enough) http://sustainableseedco.com/heirloom-vegetable-seeds/pe-t/pepper-heirloom-seeds/hot-peppers/fatalii-pepper-seeds.html

Belcanto Sweet Italian- A favorite sweet pepper in our gardens for 5 years.  In our search for good organic pepper seeds we found this one that turned out to be amazing. These huge red Italian peppers taste SO sweet, and the plants are really productive! We got lots of these last year and used them for salads, stir-frying, stuffing and eating fresh off the vine. These are definitely worth growing. The Oranos is the orange version of the same pepper. It's just as good and gorgeous in salads. (The Belcanto are almost identical to the "Atris" pepper we sold in the past.)

Belcanto Sweet Italian

The only ones we could not find organic seeds for are the Serrano, Hot Asian and Bulgarian Carrot Chiles. The rest are grown from Certified Organic seed.

Cooler weather, chance of showers...PERFECT gardening weather!

Come before noon to get your plants before the showers and the CU Graduation crowd. We will have a big selection of plants from cool weather plants to flowers, basil and tomatoes....

See you at market May 8th! Don't forget Salad Bowl Planters for Mother's Day!!!

The cool weather plants are thriving in this weather!!!  But, because of the snow, rain and wind we won't be there tomorrow April 30th, so gear up for gardening next weekend.
We will take good care of the plants until then. They are inside our "shade frames" which are like cold frames, but with just a shade cloth to protect them from the weight of the snow and the full sun on sunny days. These shade frames offer no protection from the cold, but the greens like this weather!

Lettuce and Bok Choy outside enjoying the weather near the shade frame

The greens are pretty happy inside the shade frame too

May 8th will still be a good time to plant all the cool weather plants, and we'll have a few of our famous "Latah" tomato plants. (Super-early tomatoes that are very juicy and flavorful.)
Don't forget to get your Salad Bowl Planter for Mother's Day weekend!!!

April 23rd Market Update

We missed last market due to the cold, rainy, snowy forecast- I didn't think too many people would be gardening last weekend.
Now we have twice as many plants to sell this Saturday! They are all well-hardened off, as they were out in the cold and snow with just a shade cloth to protect them from wind and heavy snow.

It's still cool enough for all the cool weather plants to thrive!

-->We have 8 types of Kale, Broccolini (Broccoli Piracicaba), Rapini (broccoli raab), Colorful Red Mustards, Colorful lettuces (heat tolerant types), Komatsuna ("Japanese Spinach") Onion starts, bok choy, Pea starts, Salad bowl planters, Swiss Chard (3 colors), Collard greens, Cabbage, Garlic greens, arugula and more.