Drier than you think
There has been little rain at the farm, so our irrigation systems are in full-swing. The scattered thundershowers that pass through are better than nothing at this point, but we really need some good rain storms. It is a bit deceiving as it seems like the fields are getting wet, but they are not. You can walk among the fields and kick the soil & it will fly up as a ball of dust. A nice “soaking-in” kind of rain would be nice.
We are at the point that the spring crops are all coming off the field and being replaced by crops for the fall deliveries. Right now we have a lot of beds ready to be planted. The middle greenhouse should be planted this week. We are unfortunately falling a little behind, but we do have time to get in all these plantings for the autumn harvests. The crew is working daily in the fields and on Farmer Rich’s delivery day two of them work on different projects that Rich has left for them, so there is no time lost.
TRIP to the FARM – scheduled for Sunday, July 20, 2008 starting at 12:00 noon. Want to help with a few projects at the farm? Come up to the farm and spend an afternoon in the country. 
Projects we need help with include:
· mulching
· install fencing around the back field (provided all the garlic has been harvested)
please RSVP so we can plan on refreshments also send out directions.
From the Fields: Our broccoli harvest is producing small heads and it looks like a bad broccoli year at our neighboring farmers as well. The tomato plants in the greenhouse in Franklin are starting to shut down. Hopefully the production from the greenhouse will last long enough until our field crop starts coming in. The garlic harvest should begin this week. Farmer Scott’s garlic is already ready and ours isn’t too far behind. More feedback to come next week as the harvest begins. The chard, kale, sorrel and New Zealand spinach all are doing well and the cauliflower crop is still “iffy”. We have about 1000 lettuce transplants ready to be planted in the field for late summer, early autumn deliveries. We are just starting to get a few ripe tomatoes in the field and our crew will be staking the plants up this week. After the garlic is harvested from the back field, we plan to fence that field in so we can put another field into production.
Weather Report: Nice temperatures all-in-all for this time of the summer, not too hot. The early morning temperatures during the weekend allows for easier harvesting to get the harvest into the cooler for delivery.
Animal report: The rabbit remains inside the fence and occasionally samples a few items. Farmer Scott planted about 3000 of our tomato plants for our csf deliveries and a deer broke into his field, which has an electric fence, and proceeded to eat about 2/3 of the plants. Fortunately it hasn’t eaten the zucchini or pepper plants, yet! We were able to replace many of the plants that Scott lost, so though not as many as we had hoped for, their production will be coming as long as there are no further set-backs.
Farming Quote of the Week:
Weather means more when you have a garden. There's nothing like listening to a shower and thinking how it is soaking in around your green beans. Author: Marcelene Cox
Projects we need help with include:
· mulching
· install fencing around the back field (provided all the garlic has been harvested)
please RSVP so we can plan on refreshments also send out directions.
From the Fields: Our broccoli harvest is producing small heads and it looks like a bad broccoli year at our neighboring farmers as well. The tomato plants in the greenhouse in Franklin are starting to shut down. Hopefully the production from the greenhouse will last long enough until our field crop starts coming in. The garlic harvest should begin this week. Farmer Scott’s garlic is already ready and ours isn’t too far behind. More feedback to come next week as the harvest begins. The chard, kale, sorrel and New Zealand spinach all are doing well and the cauliflower crop is still “iffy”. We have about 1000 lettuce transplants ready to be planted in the field for late summer, early autumn deliveries. We are just starting to get a few ripe tomatoes in the field and our crew will be staking the plants up this week. After the garlic is harvested from the back field, we plan to fence that field in so we can put another field into production.
Weather Report: Nice temperatures all-in-all for this time of the summer, not too hot. The early morning temperatures during the weekend allows for easier harvesting to get the harvest into the cooler for delivery.
Animal report: The rabbit remains inside the fence and occasionally samples a few items. Farmer Scott planted about 3000 of our tomato plants for our csf deliveries and a deer broke into his field, which has an electric fence, and proceeded to eat about 2/3 of the plants. Fortunately it hasn’t eaten the zucchini or pepper plants, yet! We were able to replace many of the plants that Scott lost, so though not as many as we had hoped for, their production will be coming as long as there are no further set-backs.
Greenhouse Pix of the week: Bird's nest in the Fava Bean Patch
notice the leaf in the nest as an attempt to camouflage the eggs! Pick of the Week: click on the links below or to the right to bring you to the delivery specific to your pick-up location. Deliveries will be of similar variety & poundage, but may contain different items. This time of year we may have some crops ready but not enough to deliver to all our drop-off locations. What we do is start to filter them in each week to a different drop-off until there is enough to delivery to everyone.
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