What a week!
Last weekend we had an unexpected frost. We thought the freezing nights were past us. All of the frost protection had been put away for the season. We woke up on Saturday morning and it was 37 degrees. We had to leave for market and there was not much that we could do. When we checked the weather later that morning it was predicted to be even colder than it was the night before so we decided we better cover what we can. All of the cold sensitive plants are in the field and so we could not cover everything. The field crew & market crew all pulled together and worked late Saturday night to get most of the peppers, tomatoes, egg plant, zucchini, summer squash, pickles, cucumbers, a few potatoes, few strawberries and the first patch of corn all covered. They started fires early Sunday morning to try and protect more that we could not get covered. The smoke helps to protect the crops from the frost.
Considering how many plants are in the field we did pretty well. Some of the potatoes and sweet corn were damaged, but are growing out of it already. We lost a lot of our first patches of beans. The pickles and cucumbers were also heavy damaged that first night and it is not looking like they will come out of it. But, the good news is the beans, cucumbers and pickles can be replanted and still have a crop this year. They will just be a few weeks behind when we normally have them.
Farming is full of risks. We do our best to keep them to a minimum, but the weather can be unpredictable. We definitely were reminded of that this past weekend.
In the picture this week you can see some of the harvest crew cutting lettuce this morning. It was beautiful as the fog was starting to lift with the sun. Thankful that the warmer temps are now here to stay for a bit and the threat of frost should be done.
Have a great week!
- Lindsey
