Sunrise
Hello Hello,
Sunshine and heat have been the day to day here at the farm... with such glorious mornings and incredible sunsets. Summertime!
Most of the crops we have planted LOVE the heat and long days but a few are not as enthusiastic... those being the spinach and peas. The spinach is starting to bolt and the peas have pretty much stopped blooming and producing. SO, enjoy these crops in the shares this week. Spinach will return in the Fall, when it's at it's sweetest! Peas... we will see you again next Spring!
So far most of the lettuces are handling the heat well but we have had a few crops bolt (this is when they reach for the sky to produce seed) earlier than anticipated. I'm not sure if it's from the drastic temperature change we had last week, going from a frost up to 90 degrees in less that 6 days or if it has to do with the thick smoke that covered the valley for a couple days last week.
Onions! I'm obsessed with the onion block, they're all looking so good and we started their second weeding yesterday.
Mike hilled the potatoes on Friday evening! They're looking good, minus a few gaps here and there as voles have turned out to be quite the nuisance in the new field. We are trouble shooting this at the moment and are happy we planted a little more than last season.
Mike hilling the potatoes with the Farmall
Our friend, neighbor and fellow farmer purchased a tractor and flail mower recently and let us borrow it on Saturday to mow down the triticale/vetch field!!! This mower chops the cover crop up into small bits and leaves a thick layer of mulch on top of the soil for protection. The plan is to rent the No-Till Drill from the High Desert Conservation District in early July and seed a Summer cover crop of oats and peas. Yes! Sometimes I wish we could just grow cover crops... it would be so beautiful, but I'm not sure how that would pay the bills?
Flail mowing the cover crop with our neighbor's equipment!
We are feeling pretty good about the current state of the farm for the end of June. Most of the farm is planted, Mike seeded the second succession of roots today. We're fairly on top of the weeds, everything has seen a weeding pass and we're already on to the second round. I'm hopeful we can keep the weeds in check this season and looking at comparison photos from last year, I feel like we're doing a pretty good job. And we need to give some serious credit here to our employee, Sadie, she's saving us this season and without her the weeds would definitely be out of control. Thank you!
CSA Week #3 - Carrots, Head Lettuce, Snow Peas, Hakurei Turnips, Baby Kale, Garlic Scapes, Salad Greens, Arugula, Basil, Radishes and Dill.
We spent Monday morning setting up the last two lines of tomato trellis for the late planting of heirlooms and cherry tomatoes. They're looking lovely and will appreciate being pruned later in the week so they have more breathing room and some direction. Oh tomatoes, I can hardly wait!
Harvest for this week's share is complete and we'll be heading your way tomorrow. We look forward to seeing everyone then! Here are the CSA Harvest details for Week # 4:
Lettuce, Kale, Bok Choy, Spinach, Carrots, Beets, French Breakfast Radishes, Garlic Scapes, Peas (last of the season!), Cilantro. Enjoy folks!