Logistics for this week: The plus items this week will be Happy Hollow cheese and Spirit Creek Farm Kim Chi. Remember, if you did not order a plus add on, you can still add these items on as extras to your veggie or meat boxes!
Here on the farm, we FINALLY got some rain, but it was pretty scary. Just across the highway, there were reports of funnel shaped clouds developing early on Wednesday evening. I ran out to turn off the irrigation (which as been running 24 hours a day for weeks now!) and close the hoophouses up so they wouldn't catch wind and be damaged. Just as I was finishing up, I took this picture, and seconds later the sky went greenish-black and the monster storm descended on us. Thankfully, there were no damaging winds or hail, and we got a much needed 4.5 inches of rain. It was so bone dry outside that despite the deluge, there was very little runoff and only a few puddles afterwards - the ground soaked it up like a sponge. In the last 5+ weeks, we've had less than 1" of rain. On average, crops need about an inch a week, so I suppose that "on average," we're caught up, but it would sure be nicer to get that rain a little at a time instead of all at once! This new seeding of buckwheat we are growing as a cover crop sure enjoyed the rain and is sprouting great.
Yesterday morning, after a quick survey of field crops to determine that they were OK, the truck arrived with our new hoophouse. It will be another 30' wide by 96' long structure, and will really help us out with better crop rotation to prevent diseases in our summer heat loving crops (like tomatoes and cukes) as well as more spinach during the fall/winter months. As organic growers, using cultural practices like crop rotation to prevent disease is really key to making sure crops stay healthy - on ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure as the old saying goes. Plus, when big stormy weather that can wreak havoc on field crops rolls through, it makes me appreciate the protection these hoophouses offer even more. This will be our 6th hoophouse here at Great Oak Farm. Also on the truck is another hoophouse for Melissa and Jason at Wild Hollow Farm, which should be filled with more flowers and produce next season as well!
Once the new house was unloaded, we got the garlic harvested and put into the greenhouse on racks to dry down. Our experiment with planting garlic in a hoophouse seems to have gone well, and the bulbs look like they sized up nicely. Garlic is a nice crop to rotate with spinach, both of which are planted in the fall for harvest the following season. Spinach can be susceptible to leaf molds and diseases when cooped up in a hoophouse all winter long with little airflow, so rotating that crop out with something else really helps with preventing pathogen buildup in the soil and keeps spinach looking fabulous! We'll save some of this garlic to replant this fall, and the rest will be available in your CSA boxes this fall and winter once it has dried down for storage. Here you can see farmer Ryan hauling in the garlic, and then setting it out to dry.
Meanwhile, the other heat loving crops like cherry tomatoes, slicer tomatoes, and cukes have been really taking off. The cherry tomatoes are finally all pruned up again (they get unruly so fast!) and looking splendid, so there will be plenty of those to go around for a while now.
The cucumbers have nearly closed in their rows as well now!
With this heat and now finally some rain, the field crops like broccoli and beans will be growing nicely. I anticipate harvesting the first big plantings of those in about 2 weeks, so we'll see how good my guess is! The beans this week are from a hoophouse planting - gotta love those hoophouses. :)
OK, back to work for me - thanks as always for eating with us, and have a great weekend! Be well!
In community -
Chris Duke
Farmer, Great Oak Farm
