Hello Again,

Well I think its safe to say it is summer. The humidty and heat are in the air and we are so thankful for a cool breeze every now and then. I haven't spent a summer in Georgia in four years but it is definately as hot and humid as I remember it.  

Things are growing fast, the days are long and productive, but I think it is safe to say that our hard work is paying off with the abundant harvest. Some of the spring veggies have come and gone and now their fields are being cover cropped so they can rest for the summer. The tomatoes are flowering, setting beautiful fruit, and slowly but surely ripening to perfection. The squash, zucchini, and cucumbers are coming on strong and growing almost faster than we can harvest them. We noticed quite a few peppers ready to harvest this weekend and you should be seeing some of them in your shares in the next few weeks. They look delicious! The melons are looking great and seem to be enjoying the weather. The eggplant are beginning to flower heavily and some of the fruit have already started sizing up. I am looking forward to a summer of delicious meals with these great looking veggies! 

 We harvested the remainder of the garlic and hung it up to cure in the garage. You should be enjoying garlic in your shares pretty soon. We planted our last set of greenhouse tomatoes and eggplant this weekend and we are happy to be done with the greenhouse for a few months. We also got some peanuts, edamame, and sweet potatoes in the ground on Saturday. The farm is changing quickly and we are transitioning from bed preparation and planting to more maintenance, watering, and harvesting. I hope you all stay cool this week and enjoy all of this summers bountiful harvest. Happy cooking! 

Cover cropping is one of our three C's to improve the soil quality of the farm. It is also a great way to suppress weeds, prevent soil erosion, build productive soils, attract beneficial insects, and help to control pests and disease. 

Cover cropping is a great way to reduce weeds in your fields. We are using buckwhat this summer in an effort to control summer annual and perrenial weeds. Since buckwheat germinates quickly it is an effective way to reduce germination success of weeds and shading out and out competing the weeds that have germinated.

The use of covercropping is a great way to prevent soil erosion. By reducing the amount of water that drains off of the field we can reduce the risks to waterways and ecosystems downstream as well as keeping the soil and nutrients where we want them. 

Cover cropping is especially helpful in increasing soil fertility. Cover crops are planted to manage a range of soil macronutrients and micronutrients. The impact of cover crops on nitrogen management is most notable because nitrogen is often one of the most limiting nutrients in vegetable production. Often plants are grown for specific periods of time and then plowed under before reaching full maturity and at its peak nitrogen content and in order to add sufficient organic matter to the soil. Often the crops used are leguminous meaning they are part of the Fabacea (pea) family. All of the species in this family produce pods and are high in nitrogen which can typically provide the amount of nitrogen used for crop production. Leguminous crops also form a symbiotic relationship with the rhizobial bacteria that reside in legume root nodules. These bacteria help in the process of biological nitrogen fixation. 

By growing cover crops that attract beneficial insects to the farm we hope to reduce the amount of pests that attack our plants and the need to spray.  Cover crops can also break disease cycles and reduce populations of bacterial and fungal diseases and parasitic nematodes in the soil. 

Buckwheat

Buckwheat has a fibrous root system and the seed can germinate within days of planting. This makes it a great choice for suppressing summer annual weeds and perrenial weeds while reducing next year's weed seed bank. The buckwheat will also help prevent soil erosion while attracting pollinators and other beneficial insects to help our plants thrive.

Buckwheat is a succulent and does not require much water making it a great choice for our hot and dry summers. Becuase it is a succulent it tends to decompose rapidly which does not add a whole lot of organic matter to the soil but will help with the soil tilth making it easier to plant your following crop. It is however efficient at taking up phosphorus from the soil and storing it in its tissues. There is research indicating that incorporating buckwheat residues in your soil can increase phosphorus availability to the subsequent crop.