Finally Some Rain!
Farmer Rich gave me a call on Friday that it finally rained at the farm after weeks of little to no precipitation. It only rained about ½" but everything fluffed up. Then on Saturday the much needed soaking-in rain came. We received about 2 ½" of rain on Saturday morning alone. Fortunately, we were able to work in the greenhouses harvesting greens, as the rain kept up for quite a few hours.
Our plan for the week if it hadn't rained was to seed in cells and transplant into plastic. This would enable us to conserve water by utilizing the drip irrigation. Cilantro, dill, radishes, beets, turnips all produce better in an open field situation and if it hadn't rained we would have to have postponed them for who knows how long. Fortunately the rain came and we are on track for our normal schedule.
John tilled the back field and the harvested garlic beds once the rains came. Prior, it was way too dry to attempt any plantings. Another tilling of the garlic beds is needed prior to planting, but the conditions are much better now.
The heavy rains filled the pond back up. It was getting very low and we were getting worried about running out of water. We are a bit ahead of schedule for "rolling" over our fields. They key is getting the plantings in on time and for a while there we were nervous about the drought conditions affecting our schedule and the future harvests.
What's up & growing: Now that it rained all the plants are much happier. The tomatoes, peppers, eggplant are all looking great. The New Zealand spinach should be harvested soon. Our cherry tomato fields are showing lots of blossoms and hopefully this means lots of tomatoes. The spring broccoli plants are not doing well and we will be reseeding them this week and hope to have decent crop for the fall. All of the squash plants are producing. We have mixed varieties such as zucchini, yellow and crookneck squash coming along and the trombocino should be harvested soon. We plan on another planting of red cabbage soon.
Fruit Delivery Flaming Fury Peaches are delivered again this week from Windy Brow Farm as the plums were not ready yet. Farmer Jim hopes that the plum harvest will be on schedule for next week. We usually have Shiro and Red Heart plums in the July deliveries.
Weather Report: The hot, hot temperatures finally dropped when a cool front brought in the rain over the weekend. We don't know what is going to happen next, as the record temperatures may have affected the plants long term. We did notice that the lettuce was starting to get bitter and the broccoli & cauliflower suffered during the extreme temperatures. It appears more seasonable temperatures are on target for this week. We hope that optimum conditions will last for more than just a day or two.
Animal report: As the drought conditions had continued early in the week, the animals seem to get more rambunctious. We have noticed that over the years, the drier it is they become more interested in the crops behind the fences as they are not finding succulent growth in their "outside the fence" living quarters. A new crop of baby rabbits appeared and they are enjoying the clover in between some of the beds and they really like the kohlrabi leaves. There may have been a bear that visited the back field, but did not enter the field. Two areas of fence were pushed down. Nothing was damaged except the fence. A similar problem occurred last year in the same area so apparently it is not looking to eat any veggies, but interested in just seeing what is going on. The beet patch has been invaded by voles, who have been feasting. This of course ruins the beets, but the beet greens are still good.
Trip to the Farm- planned for Sunday July 25th Start time will be 11 am. Projects for the work day will include helping with mulching and some general field work. We'll give you a tour of the farm, work a little, have some lunch and enjoy a day in the country! Please RVSP if you plan to attend so that we can plan on refreshments and provide you directions.
Week of July 12th - 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 at anytime during the season. Occasionally, some crops are ready to harvest 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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