2022 CSA Newsletter #9
Wow, what a week! That was some intense weather we just went through, both with the heat and the rain. We have definitely been experiencing drought-like conditions here in Dryden. We've had little to no significant rain over the last 4 or 5 weeks. And then we got dumped on at the end of last week and over the weekend. I remember thinking on Thursday afternoon how nice the steady rain we were getting was. That lasted for about 20 minutes and then the sky opened up on us. It was wild. It was the first real work day storm we experienced this season. There were some pretty good cracks of thunder and lightening strikes around us. There were similar bursts of rain on Friday and Saturday, as well. It was much needed and appreciated but the amount of rain that we got in that short of a time was a lot, real fast. The rain coming down at that rate isn't captured efficiently by the soil. Throw in high humidity and it's not the greatest but we trudged on. I may have set a record for amount of water consumed in a week.
The removal of the landscape fabric in the pepper house and a bed in the greenhouse seems to have done the trick. We haven't lost a single plant in the bare soil. We ended up taking a bunch of the viable but to small for the hoophouse peppers and transplanted them in the greenhouse in some bare spots. Since we plan on pushing our greenhouse hot peppers as late as we can and can heat the greenhouse, it made sense to give it a try. We had a bunch of cabbage ready and planted them in the "pepper house". And that is Reason #44 of "Why I Love Farming". In almost 18 years of farming, that is the first time that I ever have planted cabbage in a hoophouse. I love having a job where I get to continually experience firsts. We'll see how this pivot turns out.
This week marks the end of the summer semester and I wanted to give a quick acknowledgement to my two interns, Alison and Zach. They did an outstanding job, working in less than ideal conditions at times while learning new things. Having interns is Reason #2 of "Why I Love Farming", I also get to experience other folks' firsts. What I also love about that, is that each person's firsts are experienced differently. Alison and Zach were no different. They worked hard, asked great questions and appreciated the work. Zach has completed his time on the farm but Alison will be back with me during the fall to help finish out the season.
One thing that I worked on with Alison this week was identifying........ you guessed it, TOMATOES!!! The heirlooms have jumpstarted. They aren't loving the humidity but sure are loving the temperatures. The cherry tomatoes have started to ramp up ripening. I'm not sure how they will shake out but both heirloom and cherry tomatoes will be in the CSA share this week. We'll do one more walkthrough in the morning to see what we end up with. There will also be the return of rainbow chard this week, as well as shishito and hot peppers, okra, basil, kohlrabi and potatoes.
Have a great week!
-Farmer Todd