What happened on the farm this past week? You won’t find out here but there might be something else interesting to read. But first a few boring commercials that help pay for this newsletter.
We are still taking orders for VeggieShares. I wish it weren’t true but alas it is. Tell everyone — even those who are not your friends — and maybe we can sell the remaining shares! As always, all help is appreciated! Feel free to order from our store!
We still have a few EggShares, WinterShares and FlowerShares. Plus we have CoffeeShares and ‘ShroomShares!
The plan is still to start the week of June 19th but of course this is still subject to change. Please plan accordingly. I’ll send out pick-up instruction sometime in early June.
Please remember to send in your final payment if you haven’t already or are not on a payment plan.
Farm News
Have we talked about the weather yet? I don’t recall. Maybe it is time to do so (again).
When I started farming 20+ years ago many people asked me — prior to knowing I hadn’t been farming long — whether climate change was affecting my business. I guess their assumption was that since I am outside a whole bunch that I would know that the weather was changing. And since my business was dependent on the weather that I would have a valid opinion on the state of the climate. And I suppose the last assumption was that since my business provided something we all need to sustain ourselves — food for those who don’t know what I do — that a changing climate would not only affect my business but also could affect us all. Seems like these people were pretty astute!
But at the time I really didn’t know. As I said, I hadn’t been farming long and I had lived in other parts of the country with different climates so it was hard for me to judge fairly. Now, though, I have had significant experience with weather here and though my memory isn’t as good as it once was — and who knows it may never had been any good for all I can recall — I do know that this year, last year and the year before have been incredibly dry “springs”. I put springs in quotes since it doesn’t seem like we have much of a spring anymore. It changes from cold to dry almost overnight. The last two years the dryness extended into much of the summer. So far this spring dryness seems to be following suit.
But of course that could all change overnight. If I recall correctly, two years ago we were quite dry then August showed up and gave up 19 inches of rain. That was not ideal to say the least. Many of our winter squash that had been looking quite productive suddenly lost the battle with diseases and turned a promising squash year into a disaster squash year. Last season the dryness continued into most of the fall so we had a great squash year.
But last year would not have been great a great squash year except for the fact we spent a LOT of time irrigating. Fortunately three years go we invested in equipment to lay drip tape and now use it on most of our transplanted crops and a few of our direct seeded crops. Without drip tape we would not be able to provide sufficient water to grow healthy plants. Overhead irrigation is just not efficient enough. Too much water is wasted on non-veggie plants. Plus with our water source (well water) we can only irrigate 10 beds at a time with overhead sprinkling and have to run the system 50% longer to get the same effect. With drip tape we can irrigate up to 20 beds and in less time thus allowing even more beds to be irrigated in the same amount of time. Now that we are 90% complete with our transplanting we are now near peak irrigation. So much like the last two years we are irrigating from 7:00 am to 7:00 pm and sometimes into the darkness if we are running overhead sprinklers (less evaporation if we do this after the sun sets).
So has the climate changed and has it affected our business? I would have to say that I don’t recall so many weeks of dry weather the first 10 years we farmed. It seemed like we had sufficient rain most of the time and in the few times we didn’t have rain it wasn’t for weeks or months at a time — especially in the spring when the small transplants with shallow roots systems were just getting started and were most susceptible. We were able to use mostly overhead irrigation when necessary with only a few of the longer term crops on drip tape. This approach would not work this year or the last two years. So yes, in my opinion the climate is changing and it is affecting our business. But we are adapting and hoping that the water we tap for irrigation doesn’t run out.
That’s all for now. Time to move a hose to water the next set of beds. As always, do not hesitate to send in questions, comments, newsletter topic suggestions (there has to be something our members want to know!), share orders and maybe a few buckets of water to keep the plants growing.
This Week’s Joke
An increasing number of farmers are losing their crops due to drought
It’s a growing problem.