This week on the farm the signs of summer are all around us. It has been dry in Boiling Springs so our irrigation crew is working extra hard to keep the veggies moist and happy. This means starting each day with laying out our portable sprinkler system on a few different fields. We like to water early in the morning to avoid evaporation and winds that seem to pick up later in the day. Then we move to drip (trickle) irrigation for the crops that don't like to get their leaves wet - these include tomatoes, squash, peppers and more. Because we are using the irrigation system every day, we had some wear and tear issues catch up to us this week. Luckily we have a good team of amateur plumbers on the farm staff who worked together to keep the water flowing to the field. In this context we are all grateful for whatever rains we get this time of year - it's like the whole farm and it's people breathe a big sigh of relief when rain waters the entire property in one big dump.
The big summer milestone of this week was the annual garlic harvest. Working together the whole farm team harvested about 10,000 heads of garlic and got it bunched and hung in record time. The bulbs will air-cure in the barn for about a month before we start sharing them in your weekly CSA boxes. We will also have plenty of garlic seed available for planting in the fall if you would like to give it a try in your home garden this year.
Pastures are getting a little drier and with the heat our livestock become a bit cranky and start testing their fences. We had a few calls from concerned trail walkers this week when our cows went adventuring into the township park. Everyone made it home safely but it does keep our livestock team on their toes working to keep the animals where they belong.
We hope people enjoyed the free-range eggs that were offered as share items a few weeks back. We will continue to offer these as optional add-ons at the CSA member happy price of $5 per dozen throughout the season (non-member price is $6). Our chicken feed cost went up this year due to the grain shortage, but we are happy to provide eggs to you our members at a reasonable price. The hens are all happy in their mobile and behaving well on pasture under the care of Ava and Hansi.
Thanks for reading and eating! Enjoy your veggies and have a great week
Matt Steiman
