Fields and rainfall have a precariously balanced relationship. Farmers generally prefer to control the flow of water, so we embrace irrigation and watch uneasily when thunderclouds gather and water tables rise. Too much rain can create explosions of weeds, harbor pests, and even encourage fungal disease in certain crops. Too little, however, can leave us scrambling to spread our irrigation equipment across the fields and wondering if we should be careful what we wish for.
This past week has felt like the last small bounce on a diving board before head-first submersion into the deep end. Our friends in Lucketts and Montgomery County have seen downpours, but here there have been only 90 degree temperatures and a scant .06” of rainfall accumulation. We feel the humidity like another person should to shoulder with us in the field. Every time the sky darkens and it seems like a deluge must happen with so much moisture waiting in the air, the rain is cut short and the temperatures climb upward once again.
Our dearest friend on the Farm in this weather is the simple Water Reel. It’s a large gauge hose attached to a commercial sprinkler and wound around an automated hose reel that slowly drags it into the headland from where we set it at the far end of the field. Along it’s journey, it waters entire plots of thirsty plants, keeping freshly transplanted baby brussels alive and green. On lettuce heads and braising greens, we set up multiple tall rotating sprinkler heads. In other areas, the hero is drip tape, thin and flexible black tubing regularly pierced with small holes and set to allow low pressure water flow. Some of our summer crops, like the young bell peppers and eggplant, bask in the sun and grow regardless, but all of our irrigation efforts are required to bolster the more heat-sensitive plants and keep them ready for your kitchen.
If you look toward the sky, ask it to send us some rain… not too much, but just a little.
Coming Up at the Farm Stand:
Happy Family Ranch Food Truck
Saturday July 5, 11 AM – 2 PM
Serving burgers, street tacos, and more made with Pastured Meats from their own Purcellville Farm, HFR’s “Farm to Grill” menu is a great complement to all of our delicious veggies! It looks like it will be too hot to cook, so let the HFR truck do the work while you pick up some fresh peaches, salad ingredients, and ice cream at the Farm Stand.
Roots to Rise Juice Tasting
Saturday July 13, 10 AM – 2 PM
Join us in “sipping your veggies” with fresh, cold-pressed juices and nut mylks from locally owned and operated juicery Roots to Rise. Some flavors even incorporate Willowsford harvests!
Eat well today and be well always,
Ashley, Collin, John, Lex, Rory, Nate, James, Alexandra, Julia, Michelle, all of our assorted water bottles, the panting (but happy) black dogs, and the chickens dreaming of very large puddles
