We had an all around good week despite breaking a few things. I was using the sub-soiler this week and accidentally found our electrical and water lines going to the old greenhouse. I broke both completely in half. John and I dug out the hole and repaired the PVC immediately. It took me awhile to figure out how to repair the electrical but a trip to Home Depot solved my issues. I got to use the heat shrink sleeves to protect the line since it's buried in the ground. This is a neat invention that is kind of fun to use. It involves putting a rubber sleeve over your splices and using a heat gun to shrink it.
Other productive work this week was done on the fence. The deer typically start finding us this time of year. It is of the utmost importance to have the fence on and strongly charged before they show up. Once they figure out how to get through it is hard to stop them. We had a few broken fence posts that were fixed by Ashley and John. I fixed a broken high tensile wire. We cleaned out the brush touching the fence everywhere with help from our faithful volunteers. Anywhere brush our weeds are touching the fence grounds out the charge and makes it weaker down the line. We also just got the fence charger back after having it destroyed by lightning. So we finally have a complete fence again.
We have been hard at work seeding crops for your fall enjoyment. We've seeded lots of radishes, greens, carrots, and beets. We've had a problem with armyworms eating some of our seedlings and have lost many parsnips and carrots. Hopefully we can get back on track soon. Fall is just around the corner.
Another handy item we've been working with lately is our 'fertigation' system. This consists of a tank, which is responsible for holding the liquid fertilizer. And a device which feeds the fertilizer in at a specific rate into our irrigation system. The fertilizer we use is an OMRI listed fish and seaweed blend from Neptune's Harvest. Fish and seaweed are known to build the natural plant sugars which results in more vigorous darker colored growth. It also helps the plant avoid stress by enhancing the plants natural defenses against pest and disease. And lastly it helps the fruits last longer.
We have also been trying to quickly rebuild some of our irrigation boxes since there is no rain in sight. Many of our boxes has been out of commission for one reason or another. This wasn't a problem last year in the fall during the 500 year flood. But this year with no rain we've had to irrigate a ton to keep our seedlings alive. The heat stress is insane and if you come out to the farm around 4-5 in the afternoon you can see that many plants have at least some wilting in the sun.
We hope you guys enjoy this week's share and have fun cooking it.
Thanks to the interns
Paige and I wanted to say a public thanks for the interns running the show without us last week. They had a successful CSA and finished the entire to-do list. We got to go to BC and do some relaxing, hiking, and climbing. I've included a pic below of us climbing up the Chief a 1500ft cliff in Squamish.
