Sunday, July 29, 2012

2012 Season, week 13

July 28, 2012

This week's harvest:
Tomatoes
Onions
Garlic
Basil
Hot Peppers
Cucumbers
Potatoes

This week's farm news:

The week was a busy one. We completely reclaimed what we call our "upper" garden - a one-acre garden patch - from the torrent of weeds that really took hold after all of that rain we had. We started by hand-weeding the late melon patch and hand-cultivating the butternut squash. Any place where Eric had a straight and open area he would first mow and then turn under the weeds with the tractor - like the long path beside our eggplants and tomatoes, in between the rows of butternuts, and the whole way around our sweet potato patch. The inside of the sweet potato patch was another matter entirely. Normally, our sweet potato patch is kind of like our showcase area of our gardens - completely weed-free and gorgeous. (Probably because it's our family's staple winter food so it's a high priority!) Somewhere along the way this season, we lost it! So we called in some intern recruits from our friend Jeff (aka the Barefoot Farmer) who has like twelve or so extra helpers right now! So with Eric leading the way, he and five young & able helpers made short work of the weeds that were trying really hard (and succeeding, too!) to take over our sweet spuds! And Eric, being the hard-working opportunist that he is, quickly devised a plan for having the crew of interns help mulch the fall tomatoes that we had just finished staking and caging the day before! Yes, it was a busy week... but a good one!

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

2012 Season, week 12

July 21, 2012

This week's harvest:
Tomatoes
Basil
Sweet Peppers
Hot Peppers
Onions
Garlic
Potatoes
Zucchini/Cukes - medium shares this week

This week's farm news:

Just eleven days ago, we were still experiencing a severe drought. Now eight inches of rain later (and more rolling thunder in the distance!), it seems like the drought is officially broken! We are back to the sultry weather that is so much more "normal" to this region. Boy, it's kind of astonishing how quickly a body forgets how to cope with working out in that sultry heat!! Any garden task this week left Eric and I drenched (literally, dripping!) with sweat! And very much longing for a change of clothes! But, I suppose we got good and "cleansed". Our garden is like our very own sweat lodge, the sun our fire.

In the garden this week, our primary focus was tackling the jungle of weeds that have surged with all of the rain. A tractor with a mower sure helped speed up the arduous task of hand-pulling weeds - which we did a whole lot of, too! Next we need to turn under a bunch of finished crops and get the ground ready for fall-planting time! Hooray!

Sunday, July 15, 2012

2012 Season, week 11

July 14, 2012

This week's harvest:
Tomatoes & Cherry Tomatoes
"Peace" (Yellow-Flesh) Watermelons
"Candy" Sweet Onions
Garlic
Basil
Lettuce
Sweet & Hot Peppers
Potatoes

This week's farm news:

What a difference rain makes! My, the garden has come to life again! (Well, all the weeds have certainly come to life, too!) And the pastures are just drinking up this lovely moisture. We had several rains this week. (My heart feels sad for those farmers that are still suffering through the drought.) Beginning with a pretty intense blowing, booming, crashing storm on Sunday night. (Of course, while trying to cook out over a fire at the creek...but, hey! I was happy to sacrifice a cook out for a good rain!) From that breaking point we've had mostly overcast skies all week and intermittent rain showers. Such a stark contrast to the week before! Hallelujah!

And, this week we had a young woman, Mindy, move to the farm to finish out the season with us as our intern. She's just in time for another big planting time as we prepare to get fall crops going. And she proved herself to be a trooper as her first "harvest day" with us was mostly done in the pouring down rain! So I guess our "intern-drought" was broken this week, too!!!

Saturday, July 7, 2012

2012 Season, week 10

July 7, 2012

This week's harvest:
Tomatoes
Garlic
Onions
Potatoes
"Rescued" Sweet Peppers
Basil
Zucchini/Squash
Hot Peppers

This week's farm news:

Well, folks, as of this writing still no rain here on the farm. Our "town" just 8 miles away received an inch and we got about 12 drops, no joke. We are beginning to see some heat and water stress in the garden. The second planting of corn just couldn't even produce ears. Our sweet peppers are loaded with big green fruit but are getting severely sun-burned (so we basically stripped the plants of most of their fruit, bringing you the ones in OK shape - thus, "rescued" peppers.) And when we were digging potatoes this week, we noticed a fair number that were blackened...like they are literally cooking in the hot soil. Not good. But the tomatoes are sure hanging in there, which is good news! And our melons that are ripening right now (and should be in your baskets next week) will likely be incredibly sweet. Our young planting of melons are still growing vigorously and beginning to vine out. And those butternuts we planted last week - nearly 100% germination!

As I'm writing this, I am keeping an eye to the sky watching a bank of clouds to the northeast, maybe (strangely) even moving this way! Needless to say, I am hopeful.