Want to make some pickles this summer? We have BULK PICKLING CUKES available for the next week or two so that you can purchase the cukes you need to preserve for the winter directly from the farm. 15lb case for $35.00
Howdy CSA Members! Eric here this week, providing some insight into whats happening around the farm! Many of our Rising Tide members get the chance to see me in action, distributing shares in person. I love getting some quick face to face time with members, and really love talking about the farm and answering questions. One question I have been getting a lot lately is about all the rain and what sorts of challenges it presents for the farm. Obviously plants need water to grow, and so unlike the dry April, May, and June we had this year, the rain has allowed us to pause the endless task of field irrigation. Nature is much more effective and efficient than I am at moving water, so it has been a blessing to get fairly steady hits of significant rainfall. And the plants in the field responding with excellent growth and vigor. We have also been lucky to get mild, sunny days between the bursts of rain. A consistently cloudy and wet pattern is ripe for disease and slow growth (without the sun). We like the good sun and wind to dry things out, and hopefully allow us to get back into the fields comfortably to continue prepping fields, planting, and harvesting crops. The plants also prefer to be dry (except for the roots of course!). Wet tissue tends to be a breading ground for disease which can also weaken plant defenses against pests. One major negative, is that WEEDS also love all the rain. Wet soil allows for continuous waves of new weeds to germinate, despite our efforts to cultivate and hand weed around our crops. The challenge of organic agriculture is balancing all of the variables of our environment in such a manner so as to promote the growth of our vegetable crops. Any of those variables can be overdone, and so the real challenge of climate change is being able to predict and react to the ever more common extremes of those variables (hot, cold, dry, wet, etc). I will leave one other benefit of the rainy pattern; rainy days on the weekends are days off for us. I took a nap and watched the Red Sox beat the Yankees this past Sunday, what a treat! Have a good week everyone, see you Rising Tide-ers on Wednesday! E
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