Farm Logbook - July

July Logbook The month of July began with a superb team day in the sunshine. This day was an opportunity to take stock of the past year, share a team meal, and participate in an activity together! At the same time, the bad weather is still flooding the production areas in some places. Despite everything, flowers and vegetables are appearing. Some seeds have already been harvested! The Farm's Team Day Last Friday, July 5, the Farm's employees enjoyed a day together. It was an opportunity for the team to take stock of the past year, share a meal together (except for Olivier, who had already gone on vacation) while integrating the new arrivals, and finally, to participate in Terra Lanta! Organized by Terra Botanica, the plant-based theme park in Angers, Terra Lanta is a team-building activity designed on the same principle as Koh Lanta: several teams, game-style challenges, the traditional pole challenge, and of course, a winner! Congratulations again to the blue team We invite you to discover some photos of the day. The Farm team together (except Olivier). At the production Some plants are adorned with beautiful flowers... Cosmos Fizzy Rose Picotee Centaurea Black Ball Fennel Finale... while some are starting to produce beautiful vegetables... Bono Cucumber Kellog's Breakfast Tomatoes Courgette Caserta... while others are starting to reveal their seeds... The nasturtium seeds are starting to fall onto the tarpaulins, which will facilitate their harvest. Given their size, they will be harvested using a vacuum cleaner. The leek flowers are starting to reveal small green capsules. It is inside these capsules that the seeds are formed. Each capsule contains 2 to 4 black seeds. The salads are well flowered. We will wait until 80% of the flower heads (white fluffy plumes like on dandelions) open before harvesting the seeds...while some seeds have already been harvested, or are about to be. The Brussels sprout seed heads have been harvested and are currently drying. Once the seed heads are completely dry, they will be crushed so that the seeds come out of the small pods and can be harvested before being sorted. Here, the purple Cape broccoli seeds and the Rocambole garlic bulbils have already been harvested. They will soon be sorted to separate the seeds from dust and other plant waste. Farm Life With the recent rains, some production areas are still flooded. The production team is doing everything possible to continue sowing and planting in order to harvest the seeds as soon as possible. The tunnels have recently been repainted white. Why? Because in case of strong heat, the paint will keep the cool inside the tunnel, thus preventing the plants from suffering too much. Let's cultivate ourselves! Little information from the daily life of seed growers. Pollination of Eggplant Eggplants are 80% self-pollinating and cross-breeding of varieties is likely during fertilization. To avoid this, and to be 100% sure that there has been no cross-breeding during fertilization, we will fertilize the flowers manually. While waiting for them to be fertilizable, we protect the flowers with kraft bags to avoid cross-breeding. Why this approach? Because we want to add the Little Finger eggplant to the official French seed catalog (which brings together more than 9,000 varieties), and for that, we must be 100% sure that there has been no other cross-breeding with another variety. Varietal selection This year we have integrated a new variety of zinnia into our crops; the dahlia-flowered zinnia 'Green Envy'. However, we end up with very different flowers from one plant to another (as you can see below). This is why varietal selection is necessary in order to keep only the plants corresponding to the original variety in order to be able to harvest and sell the seeds of the correct variety (the correct flower is the multiple green flower in the center). Here are the next steps to come:Identify the plants corresponding to the variety 'Green Envy'Pull up all the plants not corresponding to the variety 'Green Envy'Remove the flowers on the 'Green Envy' plants to ensure that the harvested seeds have not been crossed.Multiple yellow flowerMultiple green flowerSingle yellow flower In Julien's gardenThe tomatoes are now staked.The cabbages are mulched to retain moisture and anticipate strong heat.The carrots have been placed under netting to control the carrot fly.The leeks are transplanted. Basil PlantsDiscover now our large collection of basil and perilla plants sown at the Farm to offer you a sale of plants with summer flavors! Most of these varieties are rare and are not often sold in garden centers and supermarkets. Perillas, on the other hand, are difficult plants to germinate (many parameters must be respected: soaking, brightness, etc.). This is why we have decided to produce these plants in-house and to offer you