Farm Report

It's been a while since we posted and it is time to update everyone on the farm. We will try to take some pictures this weekend to illustrate what we write today.

• We are holding a Tom Sawyer Day this Saturday from 1pm to 5pm. Please contact us if you wish to come out and join us. NOTE: it helps us immensely to know who will be there so we can plan.
• A week from this Saturday is our Summer Festival, starting at 4pm. This is a potluck with an available grill.
  
• Tomatoes are starting to peak. This usually means that we have excess tomatoes beyond CSA needs. Those who wish to can or freeze tomatoes should contact us and we can arrange to get you some of our yummy heirlooms! It doesn't look like a record year, but it looks like a decent year for them. A bit more cracking due to extreme changes in water levels. BUT, the taste is excellent this year since it did stop raining at the point of ripening. A little stress at the finishing point from lack of water is good for the taste.
• Turkeys have their new pasture behind the palace all fenced in, so they are getting used to running around outside. Normally, we'd like them out earlier, but circumstances being what they are... They had a regular feast with the excess of past peak cucumbers.
• Peppers and eggplant? Yes, that is the question. The eggplant are 1/3 to 1/2 the size they should be right now. But, they look reasonably healthy. We'll see if they ever really get going. The peppers, on the other hand, are just struggling to live. The water and ensuing disease pressures may well have doomed this crop. We've kept them weeded, planted them on time, etc etc. In fact, we've done as much and as well as last season (when we set records for peppers and eggplant) with our work pertaining to the plants.
• Summer squash and zucchini. Plantings 1-3 are producing at levels lower than usually expected, but enough to give everyone in the CSA some without overwhelming. Planting 4, however, looks fabulous and is getting weeded and mulched this week/weekend. It has the potential to do what these plants are supposed to do! We *dare* them!
• Cucumber planting 2 is less vigorous, but healthy. We should see them start giving us some fair crops next week. We shouldn't hit the high levels of cucumbers we have had in recent weeks, but they won't go away either (that's good news since the season for them is relatively short).
• Basil - needs a little time to grow after the cuttings of the last few weeks, but look fine.
• Onions - we need to find them again - then we'll tell you about them.
• Broccoli, cabbage - plantings 1-3 of these have failed. But, we keep trying to put more plantings in. A batch just went in about 10 days ago. Another will soon be going in. Really, we are trying to get them to go this year.
• Kale - planting 1 survived the water at about 35% of the plants. Those that are left are beginning to give us leaves to harvest (next week's CSA). Planting 2 needs to be weeded, then we'll judge. Planting 3 needs to go into the ground.
  
• Cauliflower - sorry. You can only get three successions in of these or it gets too late. These successions all drowned.
• Kohlrabi - yes, we are planting fall crops. Here's hoping!
• Peas - fall peas - the soil temp needs to be low enough to germinate - but we're really pushing the envelope on these now. We'll see.
• Green beans - we are hoping for the typical 'back to school' peak. They KNOW Tammy goes back to teaching about this time - and they KNOW she is the primary bean picker. So, they like to rub it in. Hopefully, the fact that they know of the inconvenience will be motivation enough.
• Potatoes - we dug a few plants that had died off - not much there. Many others have rotted away. Not a complete failure, but not a bumper crop. We'll be digging in September and hope to have enough to give everyone a nice little batch.
  
• Winter squash, watermelons - sorry. Watermelons are kind of a bonus if they work, so we aren't happy, but won't take it too personally when they fail. Winter squash, on the other hand...
• Lettuce - we're still waiting for one of our successions to give us excellent lettuce. We continue to start seed and plant transplants. Our latest transplant set went in and a few days later got thoroughly soaked by the last set of rain. A section was under water and many of those plants died. But, 2/3 - 3/4 of them are fine. The earlier plantings are bolting or have been harvested just before they bolted.
  
• We'll be planting fall successions of arugula, spinach, radish, beets and some other things.
  

We are hoping for a long fall to help us make a better year out of it. But, we know we can't count on that. Part of us wishes the season would just end right now so we could put it all behind us and start over. We remember feeling like this in 2008 - and the season was redeemed by a late harvest deep into October. And, we left that year tired, but ready to make 2009 a better year. 2009 was, in fact, a better season. But, it did have a few issues with its cool temps. So, it was a slightly below average harvest year - but nothing to make us feel like complete failures.

We have had discussions with several other regional growers and they report similar issues. Seeds that wouldn't germinate, plants rotting in the ground, disease issues, fruit that wouldn't store as long as they normally do, etc etc. It makes us feel better and worse all at the same time. Better, because we can stop telling ourselves that it must all be our fault and that we are a poor excuse for farmers. Worse, because it means there are lots of fine people who are also struggling with the season.

We'll just keep plugging on and keep trying to adjust.

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