It's hard to believe, but we're 8 weeks into the CSA season already! The Plus share this week will be Bayfield Apple Company Apple Jam. Here on the farm, we've been catching up on weeding. Just yesterday we finished hoeing the brassica field - cauliflower, broccoli, and cabbage plants - and they are looking fantastic. We planted different 7 rounds of broccoli (each round on a different week for a staggered harvest) this year, so we hope to have plenty now for the rest of the season. For many farmers in the Midwest, the increased precipitation in each of the last few years has made broccoli production in particular REALLY challenging. Wet weather promotes disease, and the brassica family of plants seems to be mighty susceptible to a host of different pathogens from bacteria to fungal. This is why most of the broccoli found in the supermarket is grown in the desert Southwest - it's always so dry, and plants dry off quickly when you irrigate, so disease is rarely a concern.
Thankfully this year has been fairly dry (up until the last 2 weeks) and we haven't seen any problems developing on our broccoli. This is really refreshing - the last 4 years we've typically been able to only harvest half or less of the broccoli we transplanted due to disease, which has been a pretty big financial hit to a small farm like ours. As organic growers, we have very few tools in our toolbox to control diseases. Instead of reaching for chemicals, we focus on building soil health with cover crops, and maintaining good air flow around plants. While we had pretty good weed control with our tractor cultivation, we never seem to get them all. Once the plants are too large to cultivate any more, we hand hoe all the brassicas to get the tall weeds out and keep air flowing through the planting better. Hoeing 3+ acres of brassicas is a few days of pretty hard work, but it was easier this year than it has been in the past, so that's a step in the right direction. Unless we get hit with disease, we should have broccoli available now for the rest of the growing season - broccoli lovers, rejoice!
Other field crops are taking right off now as well with the heat and recent rains. Our winter squash rows have nearly closed in on each other, and the squash are developing nicely. These acorn squash should be ready for harvest right on time in early September. For the most part, weed control was adequate, but you can see the grass stripe coming up in the bed right between the transplanted squash. The squash doesn't mind a little weed pressure - those big squash leaves choke out most other weeds - but it drives me crazy seeing all those grass and weed stems poking through the squash canopy. Each one will make hundreds (and hundreds...) of seeds, and we'll be battling the next generation of weeds for the next several years. Farmers Eric, Ryan, and I have been discussing how we can do a better job with the finger weeder (rubber fingers that scrub out the weeds IN the row between the plants) next year, and are going to experiment with the fingers in the newer broccoli plantings to see if we can dial our in-row weed control a little better for next year. Most organic farmers transplant their squash into black plastic mulch so they don't have to worry about in-row weed management, but as I have said before throwing away all that plastic is a nightmare at the end of the year, so we'll be sticking with good old cultivation instead. All in all, it's not a bad looking field though, and we'll have squash a-plenty come fall.
In the hoophouses, we've gotten through another round of pruning and trellising the tomatoes (about every 2 weeks we have to go through them.) They are loaded with fruit and showing no signs of disease thanks to good airflow from our diligent pruning. Since they are so productive, we've increased the size of the bags of slicer tomatoes now from 1# to 1.5#, and I hope you enjoy them! Fresh, vine ripe tomatoes are a real treat here in the Northwoods, so love 'em while we've got 'em! Here's a picture of farmer Eric pruning the slicer tomatoes on a ladder now that they are so tall.
Peppers from the hoophouses are starting to turn colors now as well, so they should also be a regular option for your veggie boxes as well for the rest of the season. We are growing a few different varieties, but I PROMISE you all are SWEET, even though some of them have the shape of a hot pepper! We don't grow any hot peppers on our farm, partly to make sure they don't accidentally cross with the sweet ones, and partly because I am a wimp when it comes to spicy foods. Ketchup is about as spicy as I get, but I sure do love a nice sweet pepper. Eat the rainbow!
Take care, and we'll catch up again next week.
Yours in community,
Chris Duke
Farmer, Great Oak Farm
