It sure has been nice to have an entire week with no rain! We've got a lot of catching up to do after 3+ weeks of rain but the upcoming forecasts seem to be in our favor! Luckily your summer transplants (like tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, summer squash, etc) kept dry in the greenhouse but are definitely ready to get planted out into the fields.
We are going to need to do quite a bit of reseeding (between transplanting, weeding and harvesting) since, like I mentioned in last week's newsletter) they were not happy having wet roots for so long. As most of you probably know, the leaves take in carbon dioxide but the roots take in oxygen. Wet soil means no oxygen and also inhibit roots from taking up the nutrients they need to thrive. Unfortunately some crops we aren't going to replant now (the cooler season ones) since we are only around 2 weeks away from the first week of Summer and I know they wouldn't survive the heat. These will be replanted again towards the end of the summer so we will still get to enjoy them!
Since we are getting things planted later than "normal" the outcome is we will start harvesting some of them later than "normal". Especially with the summer transplants this is a good thing this season. If the rain had kept us from planting many of the summer transplants would have already been in the ground and most likely would have met an early demise with that chilly night we had mid-May and then having to deal with wet roots. I've heard from other farmer friends who have experienced later than planned plantings catching up and producing still on schedule, I've never done it personally before but remain cautiously optimistic those will be the results we'll experience as well!
Another consequence of this wet start to the season is I am seeing aphid (a pest insect) in numbers that I've never seen before. Like any predator/scavenger in the animal kingdom they hunt down the weak and prey on them. Since the plants were struggling the aphid populations have exploded. One interesting thing about this happening is I've also witnessed lady bug, Aphid Mummy Wasp and Lacewing (predators of aphids) populations in larger numbers than I've ever seen before! While I have/still will help the predators along by spraying a few Certified Organic Insecticides (derived from bacteria, plants and naturally occurring elements), I will do it at the appropriate times (mainly late evening or early in the morning) when the beneficials are "asleep in their homes" away from the crop plants.
Also as I mentioned in last week's newsletter we are going to be experiencing a lull in the seasonal bounty as we are reseeding and planting. As this happens please remember how we were able to share with you the early treats of Asparagus and Arugula and the value of those crops were not deducted from your share yet. I was grateful to be able to share with these with you all and hopefully you can remember how tasty they were in the upcoming weeks!
This marks the first week that I'll be offering ala carte items from one of our partner farms and my friend Matt from Bee Grateful Gardens in Des Moines. Matt's specialty is growing high quality culinary mushrooms out of a large 2 car garage and a shed retrofitted into a laboratory like setting! This week we've got a limited amount of oyster mushrooms but hope to have other types available in the future. This is also the first week of offering honey ala carte from Venter's Honey. Dan Venter and his son Paul have had hives on the Farm for at least 3 years now. Not only does having bees at the Farm help with pollination and allow me to be on another No Spray database that pesticide applicators need to check, but we also get to enjoy the honey from time to time!
This season has been a real struggle so far but am so grateful for the amazing Farm Crew and all their hard work! It's because of them that I feel really confident that we are going to be able to overcome the difficult start and cultivate (pun intended) the best season possible! I truly appreciate all of your understanding the difficulties of the season so far and looking forward to the bounties that will come!!!
