It's been quite warm these past few weeks. And the lack of rain has forced us to irrigate more than we would like. For some crops, like lettuce, carrots, beans, and everything that prefers cooler temperatures, we use overhead irrigation. Overhead is not very a very efficient technique in that a lot of water has to be wasted to bring enough moisture in the soil, but it helps cool off the plants significantly. For some other crops, like the nightshades (tomatoes, peppers, eggplant) and cucurbits (squash, cucumbers, melons) we use drip irrigation, which puts just a little water at the foot of every plant. Drip irrigation is a very efficient technique that, even though is time consuming to set up, saves a lot of water in the end. An additional benefit to drip irrigation is that the plant leaves don't get wet during irrigation thus preventing diseases that thrive on wet leaves. And so, despite the scalding heat and long hours of water pumping, we have some pretty happy crops these days. And when the crops are happy, so is the farmer. And we hope that as the summer bounty manifests itself in your CSA boxes, you feel as blessed as we do.
Back to Farm Happenings at Saint Isidore Homestead and Permaculture
Happy Crops, Happy Farmer
About the farm
We are a small family farm located in Grottoes, Virginia, serving the city of Harrisonburg and the counties of Rockingham, Augusta, and Greene. We produce high-quality food using sustainable practices and ethical principles of care for the common good. Having witnessed the healing power of good food in dealing with family health issues, we started farming in 2015 in an effort to sharing with others the benefits of fresh, nutritionally-dense food, grown in a clean environment, using integrative agricultural methods. We believe that in order for food to be healthful, the environment in which it grows has to be healthy. To that end, we integrate animal and plant systems in ways that, in their natural interactions, they create an ecological balance leading to abundance and quality.
We grow over 50 different vegetable crops, perennial vegetables and fruits, and raise pastured pork, as well as ducks and chickens, for meat and eggs.
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We grow over 50 different vegetable crops, perennial vegetables and fruits, and raise pastured pork, as well as ducks and chickens, for meat and eggs.