Welcome to week 4 of the summer CSA season! Four weeks already - wow, where does the time go?!
The rains this week were well appreciated. All told we got 0.8 inches, which is less than we need each week, but was enough to really get our transplants and direct seeded crops a nice drink. This spring was a funny one - it went from too wet to plant to too dry for anything to grow in no time. .JPG)
After a rain, as soon as the soil is dry enough to get in there with the tractors, we like to cultivate to knock back any freshly germinating weeds and create a nice "dirt mulch" on the soil to trap that moisture down in the ground for our plants. Above you can see Farmer Ellen on our old Farmall Cub cleaning up the first planting of green beans with the finger weeders. Below Farmer Alex is on the field tractor tine weeding the early broccoli/cauliflower/cabbage field, with Hobbes in for the photobomb. 
The tine weeder is sort of like a big rake that gently chatters across the surface of the soil. The goal is to adjust it so that it's raking hard enough to dig out any weed seedlings, but soft enough not to damage the transplants. It's a handy tool to have in our toolbox for organic weed control!
The greenhouse is emptying out now, but we're still seeding broccoli every week. This week Farmer Connor seeded another 1500+ broccoli transplants that will be ready for the field in about 3 to 4 weeks with the vacuum seeder. Next week will be the last of 8 successions of broccoli plants in all for a continuous harvest (if all goes well) of broccoli all summer and fall..JPG)
Later in the week, after the rains on Wednesday, we turned our attention to the hoophouse crops while the soil dries out again. We caught up on some weeding, and those tunnels are looking top notch! This week will be the first of hopefully 4-ish weeks of hoophouse sugar snap pea production. Those peas are growing well despite the heat waves we've been having, and we're doing all we can to open up the hoophouses during the heat of the day for maximum ventilation to keep them cooler and happy. .JPG)
In the above pic, we had to drop down the side to keep the wind at bay long enough to prep the bed on the far left (it used to be full of scallions) for some fall parsnips. It kept blowing the black landscape fabric that we use to smother weeds along the inside edges of the hoop out over the bed. The wind has really been something to contend with these last few weeks!.JPG)
Here's what the parsnip seeds look like. These are pelletized in a round clay coating to make them easier for seeders to articulate. Normally parsnip seed is a very thin, flat, disc-shaped seed, and that's pretty tricky for seeders to handle. We'll be seeding more parsnips in the beds that our garlic is in after harvest in a few more weeks, and look forward to having some for winter CSA boxes this year. .JPG)
The cukes are starting to size up more now, but still not quite ready for harvest. Last year, we had our first cucumbers by the 15th of June, but this year due to losing that plastic in the storm this spring we're about another week out from our first harvests. Soon, friends, soon!
We got the cuke tunnel all trellised and pruned up again on Thursday, and were astounded by how much growth they had put on in just one week since the last time we trellised them. Once we were finished, the cuke hoophouse was looking pretty nice in the afternoon sun. That's a bed of garlic down the center of the tunnel. .JPG)
We'll have more garlic scapes available for your CSA boxes this week and for the next 4 weeks or so as hoophouse garlic followed by outdoor field garlic begin to send up those scape shoots. The scape is actually the start of a flower blossom, but we don't want that garlic to flower. We want the plant to put as much energy as possible into the roots so we can enjoy cloves of garlic, so the scape is harvested shortly after it forms. The scapes have fantastic garlic flavor, and can be used pretty much like green garlic. 
Big news in the cherry tomato house - the first ripe cherry tomato! We've been watching the tomatoes as we harvest beets from between the rows, and have been eager to see the first one. Rarely do we get the first tomato before the first cucumber, but that's what happened this year. Team tomato has taken the early lead in warm season hoophouse crops!.JPG)
Just outside of the cherry tomato hoophouse, in our sweet corn field, a kildeer has taken up residence on a nest next to a rock that we have been cultivating around. These ground nesting birds often seek out our fields to raise up a clutch of eggs in the spring, and we carefully cultivate around the nests when they are around, leaving a little patch of weeds for them to hide in. On Tuesday, this nest had 3 eggs, and by Thursday there were 4.
I am always amazed that these little birds are able to raise up their young in exposed fields. There are so many nesting sites around the farm that have cover and concealment, but these kildeer always prefer worked up fields that we are planting veggies in. Hopefully in the near future we'll see a fluffy little clutch of chicks racing around in the sweet corn.
That's it from the farm this week - enjoy the weekend and drink some cold lemonade for us early next week. Looks like it's going to be another scorcher out there - summer is here in full force now!
In community,
Farmer Chris
Great Oak Farm
