Right on schedule (we treasure the chance to say that in farming!), fall Kale harvest began this week, on September 1st. We also have the first few Radishes and Sweet Salad Turnips to harvest tomorrow. And we have Salad Mix to harvest! These and more Fall crops will be increasing in quantity and diversity over the coming weeks (even though it's still technically Summer).
Other crop (and pest) updates: If you've been reading along in recent weeks you'll remember that we have had deer getting into our farm (through our deer fence somehow!) and eating hundreds of cucumber plants. We may have found where they have been getting into our fence - a low spot under the fence that was hidden by vegetation seems like a possibility. We have filled that spot in and are monitoring the situation. However, the Lettuce predation has been getting worse - approximately 700 lettuce plants have been eaten in the past two weeks by what we thought were rabbits. But in a moment of farm drama last night we got confirmation of a worse pest: Groundhogs have found our farm. We now think it may be groundhog(s) that has been devouring the Lettuces. We've been farming here for 10 years now and hoping the whole time to stay off the radar of groundhogs, and apparently our time for that is over. Groundhogs are notoriously pesky for vegetable farms - they cause a lot of damage very fast, and they are quite elusive, ie: hard to trap or get rid of. Wish us luck! If anyone has any helpful experience with this, please let us know. We promise to work our very hardest to protect the vegetables you trust us to grow!
Blessings on your meals, and keep masking up and washing your hands ~
