Eb and Flow
Posted: Tuesday, June 30th, 2009
Cool and dry.
This week is an incredible temperature shift from last week’s high-nineties! Crew members were decked out in pants and sweatshirts on Monday’s cloudy, breezy afternoon. While the temperatures have made it more seasonal to be harvesting peas, we’re all still recovering from last weeks long hot sticky hours! But the heat did take a tole on some of our crops too. It was hot, and now it’s windy; things are dry! So how do we irrigate? Since we’re a ridge-top farm, all our water comes from our private well – 350 feet down into fresh heavenly sweet water. While we feel grateful that our irrigation water is a clean source (no contaminated water from raw manure in the streams or other unknown pollutants), it also must be pumped out of the earth. This doesn’t cause too much issue for half of our vegetable fields, where we irrigate with a variety of systems – sprinklers, drip tape, and soaker hoses. However, our fields that are on the very top of our ridge are a challenge. An irrigation wagon is outfitted with a 1100 gallon tank which is frankly a drop in the bucket and can not irrigate everything nor does it allow the crops to flourish in severely dry weather. It does however keep things living and prevent crops like tomatoes and zucchini from aborting their fruit. Preventing moisture loss is our primary defense. We do this by use of mulches: wheat straw, corn fodder and plastic; planting living mulches between tire tracks. We utilize drip irrigation and soaker hoses which both deliver water directly to the root zone of plants with the least amount of evaporation. Above sprinkling systems are ideal during dawn, dusk, and evening.
Last weeks heat did some damage to a few of our crops, yet things are still looking pretty good. Two plantings of spinach and a salad mix seeding bolted or went to seed prematurely, due to the heat. Then there are the heat loving crops like sweet potatoes and tomatoes that you could almost watch grow.
Farmers love to talk about the weather and we love to complain about it even more. All in all the weather has been cooperating this season and we hope that it will continue. CSA members will notice that this weeks box is smaller than the previous two. This is partially intentional- to give you a chance to eat up the bounty of the last box. But as well the heat last week pushed everything forward and we are now in the transition period between the spring crops and those of the summer. We have tiny zucchinis and cucumbers that will size up in the next week or two. And it looks like we will have carrots in about 3 weeks. The tomato and pepper plants are loaded with flowers and are looking very healthy- so never fear you will be soon overwhelmed by juicy ripe tomatoes. This is what CSA is all about -the Eb and Flow of the season. We just have be brave enough to let go and allow it to give us inspiration to cook and eat what is available.
