July Farm Report

July Farm Report

July 17, 2019

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The U-pick flowers are in Full Bloom!

I don't know about you, but I'm having a little trouble believing it's the middle of July already!!  I feel like the summer has barely begun (and came in HOT!) and it's half over at the same time.   

Out in the field, it's been quite the adventure!  From storms to mud to hot and dry, we've had "all the weather", often in the same week :).  While it can be a little rough on the humans, the veggies on the whole have flourished remarkable well!  

Kate and Sandi are wayyyy at the end of these beautiful tomato rows. A gorgeous crop!

We're in the thick of the summer crop season, and the summer squash, cucumbers, and zucchini are at peak production--time to gorge!  Our Monday harvest was likely our biggest ever, with healthy plants just dripping with fruit.  Our peppers and eggplant are not far behind--they are tall and healthy with many peppers forming. 

We've been so pleased with our summer carrots!  In a wet spring and early summer, it is one of our most difficult crops to manage.  The wet conditions favor fast-growing weeds, and the long days give them plenty of time to overtake the delicate carrot seedlings.  We have 5 plantings so far this year  (of 8 total), and this week we started harvesting the second planting.  Lots more to come!

Farm Manager Kate with a freshly washed crate of carrots. The barrel washer behind her makes this quick work!

Not every crop is thriving, although most are!  Sadly we are seeing downy mildew already in our basil--a disease that's relatively new to basil in our region but is extremely difficult to control once it's on the farm, and will likely spread to other plantings.  We will continue to plant in hopes of providing you with some young basil before is succumbs, but it is not looking like a stellar basil year :(

Downy mildrew in our basil. The leaves are yellow and darkened by the disease.

After an early season dominated by rain, we are in the midst of a HOT dry spell, and that means lots of extra time spent irrigating crops.  Our irrigation system is able to water the whole farm over the course of a week, but it requires much moving and changing of valves every 2 hours or so--it can start to feel like we have a newborn in the house!  The cycle of watering never fails to bring new appreciation to a soaking rain when it comes!

Irrigation sprinklers running around dusk. We try to run them during the late day, night, and early morning hours to conserve water.

Heading into the peak season, we are very pleased with how things are looking on the farm!  We have a wonderful, incredibly hardworking crew this year that I'll introduce next time.  They are awesome!

Have a great week and don't melt!!