5 weeks of the CSA to go. The summer season ends October 19-21. If you haven't already signed up for the winter season, you can do that now here: https://www.harvie.farm/farm/where-the-redfearn-grows-natural-farm/signup
We're very short on rainfall. So short that we've had to water the crops with city water because our trusty spring has dwindled to such a slow trickle that our pond is drying up. This has caused us to have to triage crops only providing the absolute necessity of water to get new crops established and germinating. Besides the added expense of a massive water bill, the much reduced flow-rate of the 3/4" water line compared to the 2" line from our irrigation pump means we can only water very small sections of our fields at a time, so Dave has been setting alarms and turning off and turning on different valves several times per day. This isn't normally necessary but given all the important fall crops out there including the coveted winter spinach, we've got to keep those nice and moist so we can get a good stand. Trudging around the farm switching valves is worth the extra effort but it makes us think about investing in automation to make all those valve changes not take so much precious time. The little bit of rain we've gotten is always appreciated but doesn't do much to alleviate the very dry conditions. The things that are suffering the most are the green beans which we haven't been able to spare irrigation water for. Pray for some rain so we can have a nice fall flush of beans!
Despite the dry conditions, most of the farm is looking great! Broccolini is on for this week! The super hot temps a couple weeks ago might have caused them to start flowering early which may reduce the overall size of the initial broccolini heads but hopefully these cooler nights will make them happy and have them sending out tons of super succulent side shoots for several weeks to come!
We're very close to an explosion of greens. That hot spell did slow down and delay our planting schedule for fall greens like lots of lettuce, spinach, greens mixes etc. But those have all been planted now (and watered frequently see above). They are loving the cool weather and we will have lots and lots of salad very shortly. I love fall growing because the cool season plants really thrive in this type of weather, but those crazy hot spells right at the end of summer make getting these established a challenge. So the farm is looking full of green with so many amazing baby greens, they're just too small to harvest quite yet, but they're looking oh so tasty!
Our farmer friend Mike Pearl just harvested some amazing red potatoes for us. This is the only veggie we've provided that we didn't grow ourselves. (We don't have the sandy soil that Mike has, nor the acreage and equipment to grow potatoes cost-effectively so Mike has been growing amazing taters for us for several years now. He's not done harvesting, so we'll see how many we can get stored up for the winter CSA.) We're also planning on receiving our annual delivery of winter squashes from our friends at Fruitful Hills in the next few weeks.
Pastured Meat?
Speaking of farmer friends, the Farrar's are doing their monthly meat delivery here at the farm this Thursday, so if you pick up veggies at the farm and want to get some great meat from a real life farmer who cares for the land and their animals you can check them out here: https://farrarfamilyfarmkc.com/ They also deliver to other locations so please check them out.
Bread and Cheese
Farm to Market Sourdough Sliced, Large loaf
Hemme Brothers Quark
Have a wonderful week,
Dave and Sheri
