If you stop by the farm this week, you might see some heavy equipment at work digging out our irrigation pond. Over the years it has silted in and is getting to be so shallow that it can't hold enough water to make it through dry spells. It never was very deep or very large, so we're excited to have an outfit with some heavy equipment extend the size and depth of the irrigation pond, so we can hopefully continue watering even under drought conditions. Last summer our shallow spring-fed pond dried up and we had to switch to city water which is cost prohibitive and simply can't provide the volume of water we need during dry spells. We hope the work goes smoothly and can be completed soon because it will be difficult to work around the mess, and try to irrigate using city water while the pump station is down.
Good vegetables need a lot of water to grow well. Dry conditions between intermittent rainfall can cause stress on plants that stunts their growth and makes them more susceptible to disease and pest pressure. We closely monitor soil moisture conditions to achieve optimal growth. Also, since we are transplanting and direct seeding crops nearly every week of the year, we can't usually time our plantings to match up with rain events and must provide consistent water to achieve good crop germination and transplant establishment. Nothing works well around here without water, so improving the capacity of our irrigation pond is a big step towards making our farm more resilient to harsh weather conditions.
The fields are starting to get planted out with cool-hardy spring crops. It's always exciting to start seeing the straight rows of spring carrots and spinach emerging. these are the crops that will take over when all the high tunnels are cropped out and replanted with tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and ginger.
Bread and Cheese
Farm to Market Great Grains
Hemme Brothers Feta Cheese
Thanks for letting us grow for you,
Dave and Sheri
