Hopefully everyone enjoyed the last bit of warm summer weather (for a couple weeks, anyways). While the warm weather always makes for nice mornings and evenings, working during the peak of the day tends to get a bit uncomfortable.
We used the past week to get a lot of catch up work done around the farm. Everyone powered through some pretty long weeding days in the hot sun and we've got a bit more to do, but much of the farm is now back to completely weed-free. This time of year, weeding becomes a bit more satisfying, as the days get shorter and the temperatures cool, one well-timed weeding is typically all most crops need (some quick growers like radishes typically don't even need to be weeded) - much nicer than the 3-4x's many summer crops need.
As the days get a bit shorter, we're busy planning our fall expansion projects, most of which are going to be focused around extending our season for as long as we can. While we typically have had a harvest season from March through December, we intend to have product to sell year-round by this fall. Obviously, having product available for January through March is a challenge in our climate, so we're playing with some new ideas to accomplish this. We look forward to sharing all of the changes that are coming for 2021 as we get into the various projects.
This upcoming week is going to be filled with various small projects around the farm (don't tell Derek, he insists long days of a single task go by faster than a day filled with lots of little tasks). We'll be finishing up weeding, planting some of our first fall crops in the hoophouses, seeding the last of the fall crops in the greenhouse, working to keep fields watered (anyone notice the lack of rain lately?) and likely spending more than a few hours digging potatoes. We're also going to be installing bird scare devices in the vineyard when they arrive on Wednesday to hopefully keep the damage down now that the fruit is starting to ripen (we've got a decent crop and this has been an amazing year for wine grapes, so we didn't want to pass it up - lets hope these things work!).
Hope everyone has a good week!
-Brendan & Greta
