This week I fill you in on what’s up on the farm these days. But first the same announcement from the last two weeks just in case you missed it.
We grow a variety of hot peppers each year. For delivery folks we like to keep a list of people who want them and how hot you want them. On farm people can choose their own from the hot pepper bin. So, for you delivery members, if you would like us to include hot peppers please let me know and how hot — from one to five — you’d like them. For those who have been with us awhile you’ll have to resubmit your request since last year’s list is not to be found.
What will we have this week?
Definitely zucchini. We’ll also have some broccoli, cucumbers, pickling cukes, red onions, some green onions, some kohlrabi, some okra, some eggplants, some kale, some chard, some fennel, a few cabbages, a few pints of cherry tomatoes, and possibly a few other things I am forgetting.
It is a CoffeeShare, FlowerShare and ShroomShare week.
Farm News
Summer was hitting its stride so to speak. This past week was the first hot week we’ve had so far this season. And boy could you tell. We picked the zucchinis on Friday morning and by late afternoon it looked like they could be picked again. We also started irrigating for the first time this season. With the forecast of hot weather for the weekend and our inability to irrigate everything at the same time, we figured it was time to get things well watered before the heat hit. Oops. We got 1 1/4″ of vertical rain this weekend — not sure how much horizontal rain. Then we got more rain Monday morning. The forecast calls for dry weather for the rest of the week. I assume that means more rain and will plan accordingly.
Let’s see. Other than rain what is there to talk about? I was hoping to cultivate the third planting of corn this weekend but it rained. I was hoping to dig the first potatoes on Monday but it rained. I was going to plant some carrots for the fall but it rained. Not much else to talk about other then rain it seems.
Now we did get around to transplanting some of the fall crops on Friday before the rain. We planted broccoli and Napa cabbage. When we transplant we first till the soil then make a bed with our combination drip-tape layer, fertilizer spreader, bed shaper. I’m not sure if I’ve complained about this contraption before but that morning I decided to name it “Green Eggs and Ham” because I do not like it Sam-I-am! I do not like it on a train. I do not like it in the rain. It doesn’t work with our clay soil. It really makes my red blood boil!
I thought after almost a week without significant rain that the soil would be dry enough for the bed maker to work well but I was mistaken. It kept clogging up with the dirt piling up at the front so the fertilizer that is supposed to drop all along the way ended up on top of the pile of soil and never made it into the bed. It ended up at the end of the bed with the big pile of dirt. We’ve seen this many times in the past and have tried a variety of ways to resolve it. Sometimes the changes work. Sometimes those same changes don’t. It all depends on the soil conditions at the time we are making the beds. By the end of making the beds on Friday I was apoplectic. I’ve been meaning to use this word for awhile. It was stuck in my head for some reason (maybe it was in a crossword puzzle) and it seems the only way to shake it out is to use it in a newsletter, so here we are.
On the positive side, having the machine lay the drip tape is quite helpful and without it we probably wouldn’t use drip tape and the last few years would have been disasters. So we put up with its eccentricities and will continue to use it until something better comes along (farm machinery rarely wanders around the neighborhood like deer so I’m not optimistic a solution will arrive soon). And next season we will fertilize another way prior to making the beds so that the machine has one less function to fail on.
Other than planting, harvesting, washing, weeding, packing boxes, spraying for bugs, making bouquets, delivering shares, writing newsletters, adding up all the rain and yelling at deer, it has been pretty slow around here.
Joke of the Week
What happens to farmers when it’s raining?
They get wet just like everyone else.
Send in your questions, comments, suggestions, ideas, jokes, brain teasers or anything else sitting around in your brain.