Summer Squash & Zucchini

The cucumber analysis was interesting (to me). And, we have enough information to begin doing this work. The question is (of course)..."WHY?"

The answer is - so we can confirm for ourselves that what we are PLANNING is matching what we INTEND for our farm, the CSA and our fields. We are finally at a point where we have a few years of data, so we can actually see some trends - even if the weather and growing seasons have been odd. We can't let that matter too much since odd might be the new normal.

It is also important for us to assess what this farm is capable of. We owe it to our CSA members to check and double check that we are doing what we can to give them a fair amount of good produce. We owe it to ourselves to determine what is the best way to maximize our effort on this farm. We can only be sustainable if we are a sound farm business in all senses of the word.

So, this brought me to looking at summer squash.

	Week 1	Week 2	Week 3	Week 4	Week 5	Week 6	Week 7	Week 8	Week 9
2006	0	30	60	137	112	92	165	138	159
2007	186	275	480	351	569	390	314	100	79
2008	0	98	184	329	257	212	337	221	147
2009	10	83	154	245	330	329	147	193	168
2010	0	5	31	67	187	269	228	373	496

We just completed week 9 of our range for summer squash production. Our normal is 11-12 weeks.
2007 was again an excellent year for this crop UNTIL the heavy rains in August destroyed our late planting. This year is a direct opposite with heavy rains destroying the early crops and the late crops moving in to save the day. Note that the production level steadily increased each week this growing season.
2008 and 2009 were weak years due to low growing degree days. But, these serve as a baseline for a weak year.

If we wish to do a reasonable distribution of 4 summer squash for a large and 2 for a standard every week (assuming 20 large shares and 100 standard shares), we need 280 summer squash.

Zucchini looked like this:

	Week 1	Week 2	Week 3	Week 4	Week 5	Week 6	Week 7	Week 8	Week 9
2006	0	11	30	43	22	22	50	42	63
2007	281	292	243	444	382	309	144	54	29
2008	3	126	270	268	172	174	268	112	59
2009	39	117	336	385	189	195	117	163	61
2010	0	18	71	51	212	268	201	321	366

The beauty of these crops is we can combine the two to provide larger numbers and distribution possibilities. And, consistent supply over a few weeks means we can alternate peaks in distribution. Monday/Tuesday gets a larger amount one week and Thursday the following week.

Once again, the numbers confirm for us that when the crop is right - we have plenty of excess beyond the CSA need. In fact, even in poor years (2008 & 2009) reasonable amounts could be distributed - but little (if any) could be sold as excess. Capacity appears to be yields of 300-400 zucchini from mid July through August (about 7 weeks) with smaller amounts stretching out on either end a week or two. We approached capacity in 2007 with 2200 units. So, there appears to be adequate evidence for us to continue to operate under the assumption that our plan using the existing varieties, planting succession and row foot allotment is not in need of extreme modifications for 2011.