Greetings y'all!
I hope this week's newsletter finds you doing well and ready for a wonderful Tuesday. I feel like this week's share embodies summer more than any of the last. Partially because of the lack of greens and partially because our tomatoes, eggplant, and peppers are really starting to go crazy! I hope you enjoy these summer fruits (and don't worry, greens will be back soon).
We encountered a torrential downpour this weekend. Our rain gauge topped out over 3 inches!! Being a farmer and working with the weather (or who am I kidding...weather is boss), we learn to accept whatever mother nature throws at us. There's always a cup half full way to look at even the most destructive weather events. Post rain, I became a little worried about being able to work up all the land we need to in order to plant our last succession of beans, squash, cucumbers, and tomatoes. I cringed as our slightly sloped back field spilled run off soil onto our crisp white row covers that blanket our baby melons, cucumber, and squash plants. But while these are some concerns, there will be more time to plant, and we can address the soil on the row covers (at least we captured our precious soil in the field!). The positives are many. We will not have to irrigate! We were given time away from weeding and other field tasks (that were too wet) to catch up on our fall seeding, and our many cover crop seeds that we've been sowing all over the farm are happily germinating as a result of the wet weather. And, boy, I tell you our sweet potatoes really loved the rain. Check'm out when you're on the farm...in just a couple of weeks the vines have started going wild!!
I was having a hard time deciding what to write about today. I feel like there are so many interesting things that go on on the farm. Perhaps I'll share with you a hodge podge of some of the cool things going on.
1. Garlic prepping time -- Garlic is one of my favorite things to grow. It's remarkable that at any time during the year we've got some sort of garlic on hand. In the spring, green garlic, in the summer, fresh garlic, in the fall and winter, cured garlic. The garlic planting process starts just around Halloween when we poke little garlic cloves about an inch deep into the soil. It's one of the longest crops to live on the farm, a whopping 7 months! By the end of May (or early June this year) we pull the garlic plants, each clove turning into a bulb over the winter and spring. We then hang the garlic in the apprentice's garage for curing. This curing process allows the energy (and delicious flavor) of the leaf to flow into the root. The curing process also helps with storage.
2. Fall seeding time -- Just yesterday we successfully seeded about 65 greenhouse trays of fall veggies. We sowed everything from cauliflower to fennel to head letftuces. These crops have their work cut out for them, germinating and growing in these warm temps, fighting off all of the lepidoptera (cabbageworms, cabbage loopers, etc.), and surviving a couple of months to be harvested in late September through the end of winter. There's something really nice about starting fresh again with a new season of veggies. Fall is a lovely time on the farm and I'm so excited to think about the harvests to come!
3. Beneficial bug (and other animal) time -- Here on the farm we rotate our weekend and evening farm duties. I was 'on' last weekend and enjoyed my evening routine of closing the door to our chicken coop at around 9:30 pm. The sunsets have been just amazing and I love sitting and watching to see what happens during the transitional time of dusk. On Sunday, the half moon was behind a few clouds and it felt a bit darker than usual...the clouds parted and the brilliant moon popped out. It was then that I noticed the sound of something flapping, flying. I looked up and saw at least 10 or so bats flying above me! I was thrilled to notice these guys since bats are a very good friend to have on the farm. An adult brown bat can consume up to 500 mosquitoes in one hour. They also consume many of our other night flying vegetable pests. I really enjoyed seeing the bats, but I cannot leave out our birds too. We have an abundance of birds on the farm (and one day I hope to know who they all are), but they too help eat our flying insect population and provide us with nice music each day. (Anyone a bird watcher out there that wants to help us catalog??)
Assassin Bug
(click photo for one of my favorite Southern farm resources)  |
And finally, every once in a while we get to see some magical things that are reminiscent of a National Geographic nature film. Two of the fun predatorial things I've seen recently include a predatory stink bug killing a Mexican bean beetle (should've had my camera) and an assassin bug attacking an armyworm larvae. The farm is one interesting organism with lots of little things taking place, striking balance.
Well, I'm going to wrap up. I hope you enjoy this week's share and I hope you make some good food and share it with someone you love. That's what it's all about, right?
Cheers,
Paige and the fearless crew
