D&V Organics CSA
Week 3
It's been feeling like Summer has been creeping its way in earlier this year, the heat in the fields has been tough on us here at the farm and we are looking forward to a cooler week coming up. The weather in South Jersey gives us some advantages in that the mild Spring and late Winter gives us an edge in getting the fields ready and an ability to produce our crops early. Our soil on the farm is very sandy, which is both a blessing and a curse. Sandy soil warms up quicker and dries out faster than other soils, allowing us to get into our fields with equipment and prepare the fields for planting. The challenge with sandy soil is that it does not retain moisture very well, which means our irrigation cycles need to be shorter in duration and more frequent. Other than the challenge with keeping the crops adequately watered, sandy soil contains fewer components that allow nutrients to remain in the soil and available for our plants to use and grow properly. We have to be strategic in our irrigation, with managing nutrients and supplying those nutrients that are critical for proper growth and crop yield. Soils contain various nutrients for plant growth, some are readily available, some need to be digested/converted by microorganisms that live in the soil into a form that the plants can utilize and grow. Part of our practice here on the farm is to do what we can to increase the capacity of our soil, both in the short term and in the long term. There are certain practices that the National Organic Program (NOP) require us to do to maintain our organic certification, but after farming on our particular soils, we recognize that there are additional things that will benefit our land. Each year some fields are used later than others, some not at all. One practice that we employ is seeding cover crops on land that is not presently in use. Cover crops are plants that are not harvested for use or sale, but simply used to benefit the soil. Some cover crops are various grains, like rye, oats, barley, all of which produce lush green leaves and strong root systems that help to prevent erosion during wind and rain events. Other cover crops like clover and peas have the ability to take nutrients in the air and pull them into their roots; microorganisms in the soil can convert those nutrients into "food" for plants. When we plow all of that green matter (cover crop) into the soil, the microorganisms in the soil feed on it, digesting and decomposing it. Growing cover crops and rotating the fields we use for various cash crops (vegetables), allows our soils to rest, feeds the microorganisms (the real basis for a healthy soil), and adds structural components to our soil over time, making it better over the long term. Farming in its most simplistic form is turning a seed into a plant into food, but managing the farm as an ecosystem is a creative endeavor that takes time, patience and an understanding of the underlying science, which is a lot more involved than meets the eye. Sometimes all the fascinating science things elude us because managing the day-to-day, ins and outs of staffing and tasks and business things is more prominent, but it all really comes back to a strategy that prioritizes longer term health.
Enjoy,
Derek and Crew
