Summer CSA Week 8
Farm News
The start of this summer was so cold we went out to the fields weighed down by trepidation each CSA harvest. The cold just slowed everything wwwwaaaayyyyy down. We lost our buckwheat and cover crop and many winter squash plants to those couple nights of extreme cold.
And then, the cold flipped and now it is hot. Instead of wondering what will freeze, it is making sure that all the things (farmers, animals, plants) doesn’t succumb to extreme heat. We spray down the dogs, chickens, horses, pigs, and ourselves. We run 12 hour irrigation sets in the big field. As farmers, we start at 6 and finish at 2 and take salt tabs, drink plenty of water, and always travel with a bucket of water to keep our shirts wet. (It is like a portable AC unit. You should try it out.)
Amidst all that cold and heat, and the fret and worry that comes with it, we have had some serious successes:
✔️ Summer successions are planted and winter successions are being seeded this week.
✔️ The 25-acre big field is filling in nicely and providing the goods! (Finally!)
✔️ The buckwheat crop is taller than it was before the frost that took it out and looking brilliantly green and healthy.
✔️ The corn is growing tall and the winter squash is filling in.
✔️ We finished weeding the onion, carrot, and beet blocks.
✔️ We are dizzy from kult kressing the 25-acre over and over again.
✔️ The winter cover crop is seeded and has sprouted so the cows have something to graze all winter long.
✔️ The garlic has grown big and delicious and we are harvesting this week!
✔️ The flowers in the 2-acre are going off right now.
Farming successes ebb and flow. Sometimes they are harder to remember or see then others especially as this place we call home hands us one challenge after another. As farmers, indeed as humans, it is important to take a moment and find the success, the thing to be grateful for. That moment and the thing (or things if you are having a good day) that surface to the top, that is what makes it all worth while.
Thanks so much for being along on this journey with us. Successes, speed bumps, frosts, heat waves. It means so much to us to know that you are there cheering us on and nourishing yourselves with the food from our fields!
~ Alison & the Farm Crew
Top Pic: We’ve mentioned the Kult Kress a few times recently. Here it is! This baby get’s us pretty close to precision weeding. The back end (where Nat is) drops down into the soil and Nat adjusts where the fingers (the yellow star looking attachments on the underside of the orange implement) go both depth wise in the soil and width wise next to the plant. Then Sarah drives and Nat steers and the Kult Kress disturbs the soil and flips out all the invisible to small weeds allowing us to stay ahead before we have to hand weed. (Photo credit: Ray Hansen)
Next Pic: When you let the weeds get too big, you crawl and either cut them out with your harvest knife or pull them out. One’s approach depends on if it will take out the vegetable it is currently crowding out at the same time. After we hand weed and crawl, then we gather all those out of the way and either feed them to the pigs or chickens or put them somewhere so they will be reincorporated into the 25-acre as biomass. Once the big piles of weeds are out of the way, you guessed it, we cult cress to get the little invisible guys before they can grow big and we have to start over. (Photo credit: Melissa Harmon)
Final Pic: Olive helped out by keeping the dirt down after we pulled the weeds out. (Photo credit: Melissa Harmon)
Veggie CSA
Every week, we include this section with what we think will be coming out of our fields and hoop houses for the CSA pick up. Keep in mind, that we send this email on Monday just as we start harvesting for the week. That means this is a guess/estimation/extrapolation of what we think we are seeing in the fields. Sometimes we are spot on, but other times we are not.
Our CSA is market style, this means that it isn’t a guarantee that we have of all these things for everyone. Instead, this will be the variety of what we will hopefully (fingers crossed) have for you to choose from this week.)
A note on foundations: SURPRISE! You will learn your foundations and all the details of your CSA for the week when you pick up.
Harvest List will probably include:
asian greens, napa cabbage, yod fah
green onions
kale
head lettuce, salad mixes
radishes & salad turnips
kohlrabi
beets
basil
beans
purple cayenne peppers
eggplant
tomatillos
zucchini
cucumber
chard
peas
thyme, lovage, lemon balm, parsley, chives, oregano, mint, marjoram
fennel
Meat CSA
Tune in next week for the Meat CSA.
Don’t forget, Meat CSA picks up every other week. Next meat CSA is 7/10.
(photo credit: Ray Hansen)
