The first Farm Share delivery is finally here! What a crazy start to 2020 this year has been already!!! Please watch for an email from me tomorrow or the next day detailing all the new farm protocols we have put in place because of the "pandemic".
We are a few weeks behind on everything right now for many reasons. Because of the virus seed orders which would usually have only a 3-4 day turnaround from when we ordered them to when we received them turned into a 3-4 week+ plus turnaround time and we were not given a heads up about this happening. I have no bad feelings toward the Seed Companies we order from because they were having to change and adapt, like we all did, in a short amount of time! It was kind of a "blessing in disguise" the seeds took longer to ship because that helped us mitigate some of the weather "issues" so far this season!
The rains were timed "perfectly" that just as soon as the healthy soil ( high organic matter content) of the Farm was almost ready to start tilling and planting in, we got more rain. If we had your Brassica Family Crops (broccoli, cabbage, etc) planted in the fields according to plan most likely we would have lost a lot of them because of the really cold nights we experienced earlier in May. "Luckily" they were able to stay nice and warm in our heated greenhouse then and we aren't needing to till the crops under like many other farms are having to do.
There are some crops that have suffered because of the weather (both rain and temperature fluctuations) though. The only crops that has really suffered because of the cold is the first couple plantings of bush beans. They were up and seems to have succumb to the cold. Other crops influenced by the temperature fluctuations are your radishes and arugula. Both of them are starting to show signs of "bolting" (which means starting to flower) which doesn't effect their flavor but means a shorter harvest window than expected. Besides the rains making it hard to get in the field it also seems to have effected the spinach crop and were seeing signs of dampening off (which means the stems are rotting at ground level) and I'm not anticipating as long or as bountiful of a harvest as realistically planned. It's too late to plant more spinach or radishes but we are continually planting more arugula and bush beans to still get a crop this Spring.
I'm sorry to be a such a "downer" in the first Share email of the season but just want to be very open and transparent with you all about what is going on at the Farm. I've been on this land over 14 years now and this has been one of the most, if not the most, challenging starts to a season I've ever experienced!
But... there are a lot of positive things going on here as well!!! This season (because of the rains and such) I decided to till in our over-wintered greens in the high tunnel earlier than planned so we could pack it full of tomato (both cherry and full size) plants and basil. I'm anticipating the earliest harvests of both of these crops earlier than ever before! Your potato and garlic crops are looking better than they ever have before this time of year! We are also Also, the Farm Crew this season has really been going above and beyond to adapt to my ever changing "plan" and I feel very confident this season will turn out to be one of the best ever after we mitigate/adapt to the beginning of the season challenges.
Have a great week,
Farmer Ben and the Crew
