I would like to take moment and celebrate Women's History Month! I don't know a lot, but every meaningful thing I know, worth remembering, I learned from women. Through my literary studies, I came to understand that throughout history, it was not easy, and often downright miserable to be female. With as much as women have contributed to our society, it really is insane the right to vote was secured only 100 years ago in this country. While society has progressed, I know that being a woman in 2023 is still not easy. So many expectations from home, work, and society have placed an unfair level of stress and anxiety on women that would be hard for men to imagine, let alone face every day. I owe so much of our farm's success to women. Not only have my mom and fiancé been there with me every step of the way, but women make up the majority of our farm share members and farmers market customers. Cooking with whole foods can be time consuming. In this fast-paced world, you deserve a shoutout for slowing down and intentionally preparing for yourself and your family locally sourced meals made with high-quality ingredients. Food really is love.
This Week
The sun is shining more every day, and we had a great harvest week! The lettuce this week is so beautiful, and we have some of the best bok choy we have ever grown. I think the baby kale crop has been really delicious, plus the braising greens mix will be really diverse this week. I added a few mini napa cabbages to the delivery too.
Farm Update
This time of year, every day seems so critical. We had some hail last week that damaged two-week-old radishes and a few rows of baby salad greens. I was most worried about the wind, but we evaded damages. I still have a feeling in the next few weeks we will get another frost, because the urge to plant all kinds of cucumbers and squash is hitting me hard while we have the high temps.
At the beginning of every week, we spend Monday and Tuesday focusing on field work like preparing rows, transplanting, and weeding. With our new tractor implements, we can make our no-till techniques a lot more efficient. We expanded our farm again by another 20%, with plans for two more field blocks that will nearly double our current growing capacity. I can use the rotary plow, which makes walkways between rows to easily build new beds. That plow creates a 12-inch-wide path about 5 inches deep and slings the soil to the right on top of the row. After making several passes on each side of the row, enough soil can be thrown to completely cover any cover crops or weeds. We don't have to till or disc the plots. Preserving the soil structure is important to the longevity of the field block. After the rows are made, we can amend, then use our tarps to cover them until it's time to plant. I made the watermelon patch last week, so this summer I hope y'all will enjoy the personal sized melons! The other field block will be for beans/peas, and the third will be for summer plantings of butternut squash. I'm hoping that these "main crop" field blocks will help us diversify and scale up our vegetable offerings. It's a really big deal if we can have the space to grow enough beets for 3-4 months, or for thousands of pounds of carrots. It's so important for the farm shares because we can grow large amounts of "storage crops" like purple hull peas and cure a few tons of butternut squash to last all Winter.
I really appreciate all of you so much for being members of our farm shares. I hope that you have benefited from this service we offer, but I also hope that you see it as an investment in the future of Current Farms. We started our farm with the subscription service as the business model, and we are now entering our fourth year of farming full time. As far as this particular style of no-till market gardening, I am entirely self-taught through books, YouTube University, and my observations based on home-gardening experience. I haven't been to farmer trainings, or worked on another farm, and unfortunately there aren't a lot of local mentors, or experts that have helped us navigate starting a farm. We started with a blank pasture and have worked hard to master certain crops and build consistency through each season of the year. I think that we are facing the 2023 growing seasons with a renewed sense of confidence. You support has helped us purchase equipment that not only makes our work easier but gives us extra time to learn new growing skills and diversify our vegetable selections.
