Hello, July, and welcome to week 6 of the summer CSA season! Here at Great Oak Farm, we've been doing a lot of cultivation in on our field crops as we wait for rain. The weeds don't seem to really mind the droughty conditions and grow just fine, but we're keeping them in check with timely cultivation and the field crops are looking nice and clean.
Below you can see one field of winter squash. When we started out this spring, this field was a weedy mess, and we had only 2 days instead of 2 weeks to get it cleaned up and ready for transplants. It's a lot easier to get the weeds out of a field BEFORE you plant veggies in it than after the veggies are planted, but that's the lot we were given this spring. Thank goodness for those old cultivating tractors!
After a cultivating a few times close to the plants with several different tools under our little Farmall Cub to get the weeds knocked back, this week we were finally ready to clean up the big spaces between the squash rows with the Ro-Runner on the big field tractor (pictured below). Wow does it look good - I sure do love a nice cleanly cultivated field. 
The squash is starting to vine out now already - here's a shot of those same squash from the newsletter last week, one week later. They are really loving the heat! 
I know it might put a damper on the festivities, but we're really getting desperate for some rain, and our fingers are crossed for a nice gentle shower on the 4th as forecasted. In the mean time, we're getting our pond irrigation set up to help get some water out on the field crops. Here's a map from the National Weather Service showing how dry it's getting up here. June is usually one of our wettest months, and we're about 4" below average rainfall this year. That's us in the deepest darkest red...
The thirstiest crops we have are the germinating carrots and beet seeds we planted late last week, as well as the summer brassicas (broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower). I hope to be able to get the pond irrigation system up and running this weekend - those crops will sure appreciate a good drink of water.
Below you can see some of the T junctions we've been building for the irrigation line. It's old school irrigation - no fancy sprayer guns, few moving parts, but it should do the job well. Once it's all in place, we can plug aluminum irrigation pipes to the metal fittings and get some serious water out on those fields. 
Remember, if veggie crops need 1 inch of water per week, that's 27,000 gallons per acre. Multiply that out across the 15 acres of produce we are growing, and that is a LOT of water that we need each week! To move that much water, we will be using 4 inch diameter hose and a big pump to push water out of our pond through the sprinklers on the aluminum pipe. Even if it ran 24-7, a garden hose just cannot get the amount of water out to cover what we need. It sure is easier when water comes from the sky, but having a pond to pump out of will help keep our crops alive when it gets dry out.
Meanwhile, the hoophouse crops are cranking along. The peas are looking great, but I think this might be the last big week for them - they are no longer making many flowers, so harvests will decline quickly after this week. I know what you are thinking: "But we just started getting peas in our box!" 3 weeks is about all we can hope for when it comes to a pea harvest. Savor those veggies when they are here, that's the fleeting nature of seasonal crops and eating with the seasons! 
The cucumbers are going gangbusters now - they have nearly reached the rafters of the hoophouse already! Soon we're going to be lowering them on their trellis lines to keep them from getting too tall to harvest, the same way we do with tomato plants. We'll also come in and prune off all of those lower ratty leaves, to help keep the foliage healthy and prevent any disease from taking hold on the older leaves. .jpg)
Speaking of tomatoes, the cherry tomatoes are taking off now too. We will harvest as many pints as we can for your CSA boxes, and should have plenty for everyone in another week or so.
We went through and pruned up both the cherry and slicer tomatoes again this week (something we do about once every 7-10 days) and the slicers are absolutely LOADED with fruit! One tomato is starting to blush now, so I expect that we'll be starting our slicer tomato harvest in about 10 more days. Do you see it hiding in there?
Finally, we're still having our basil microgreen sale this week! We've got sale priced basil microgreen clamshells, as well as bulk basil microgreens too (they are basically 2 clams worth of basil micros at an even bigger discount). Whether you like basil-garlic scape pesto, or grilled chicken over noodles with fresh basil and white sauce, they are a great way to add some fresh flavor to your meals!
That's it from the farm this week. Wishing you a safe and happy holiday weekend!
In community,
Farmer Chris
Great Oak Farm
