By: Farmer Richard
It’s been 7 weeks since the last farm update we shared with
you on April 19, written with a foot of snow on the ground! In that update we reported that this year
sets the record for the coldest and wettest spring in the forty plus years
since I started farming! Despite that
crazy, wet, snowfall in late April, we were able to do our first spring
planting on April 24 which is one full week later than any other year I’ve had
farming. The late start to the season would
suggest that all of the crops would be later and heat loving crops like tomatoes,
sweet corn and peppers would be equally late and have a short season, barely
making it before the first fall frost! Well
folks, keep reading as I have some good news!!
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Onions in the greenhouse |
We had to plan our greenhouse transplants for a “normal”
year. We started planting in late
February and actually had some really nice, sunny days in March. We have new plastic on all the houses, so our
early seeded crops took off nicely and even when the days became more cloudy, the
crops continued to grow and were ready pretty much on schedule. As soon as the skies cleared (and the snow
melted away), we seized the few dry days we had to prepare ground, lay plastic
(for some of our transplants like onions and tomatoes) and tried to keep our
field plantings on schedule. When
greenhouse transplants are ready, they really need to get to the field! However, just because you get a plant to the
field it doesn’t mean it’s going to take off and grow, especially when it’s
cold as it has been this spring.
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Antonio, Jose Luis & Carlos laying out hoops to cover zucchini |
We
decided to invest the time and energy into covering some crops with row covers
to help trap heat and accelerate plant growth. We cover some crops every year, but this year we had so many fields to
cover that we had to fill an extra 1,000 sandbags and cut 1,000 new wire hoops
to put over the beds to keep the covers from damaging the transplants under them. Without the hoops we risk giving the plants
cover abrasion and we need the sandbags to hold all the covers in place! We couldn’t have covered all of these crops
without our amazing crew! When we had
only a few dry days to plant and cover, they were asking “can we work late to
finish?” They repeatedly tell me, “if we
don’t plant it and take care of it, we don’t have a crop to harvest!” It’s important to get the big picture!
|
Strawberries right after the covers were taken off. |
We are well aware that it is our crew’s dedication to
getting the crops planted on time, covered for protection from cold and storms
and willingness to work late some nights that has changed the picture from
coldest/latest spring to bring us pretty much back on schedule! Does anyone remember that heat wave we had at
the end of May? We went from cool
growing weather to blazing hot! Those
covers we had on everything…..most of them had to come off because now we ran
the risk of the crop getting too hot! We
had to uncover the zucchini, cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers and eggplant. When we did, we were really happy to see
beautiful plants that now appear to be growing at a normal rate!
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Zucchini plants thriving after being uncovered! |
Vicente and the irrigation crew members receive some
acknowledgement here as well. They have
worked diligently to set up all the drip irrigation making it possible to give
many of our new transplants a small drink of water mixed with fish and kelp
fertilizer shortly after they were planted.
The combination of water and nutrients followed by a week of
unseasonable, warm temperatures and we really saw some growth under those
covers! We are now ahead of schedule for
zucchini, cucumber, melons, tomatoes, eggplants and peppers!!
We have two crops of sweet corn and beans up and growing and
one planting of edamame. We lost about 25%
of the first planting of corn to the Red Wing Black Birds. Unfortunately they found that they could dig
up the corn seed that was planted shallow because the soil was cold and we
wanted the seeds closer to the surface so they would receive heat from the sun. These were pretty determined birds that
didn’t seem to mind the “scare eye” balloons and shiny streamers we put in the
field to try to deter them. They ignored
our tactics and continued to dig up the seeds.
So our solution was to feed them organic corn on the edge of the
field. That actually did work as a decoy
and and we still have 75% of the crop! It’s
hard to get upset with these birds, after all they have babies to feed and
we’re always encouraging parents to feed their young ones more organic
vegetables!
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Luis and Felix G mastering the new cultivator |
If the weather cooperates we can still have a great
year! Right now we’re working really
hard to battle the weeds. Rafael has
done a superb job of flaming crops to kill weeds just before a crop comes
up. Our local Cenex crew has been super
cooperative in keeping our flamer filled and repaired. A few gallons of propane used on the precise
day saves hours and hours of weeding later!
The result of being diligent and staying on top of flaming is the main
reason we have two beautiful crops of early carrots and five acres of parsnips,
cilantro & dill! Rafael has also
done a lot of mechanical cultivating and has been instrumental in directing other
cultivating crews. Luis and Felix G have
become masters at operating our new Kult/Cress German cultivator. They’ve learned how to work together to use
this machine to mechanically kill a lot of weeds!
|
HVF crew hand weeding parsnips. |
Andrea gets huge credit for keeping ahead of our frantic
spring planting schedule. Simon has also
been a key player in helping us keep the greenhouse plantings on track and has
helped with our “hot water” seed treatment for some seeds and biological seed
treatments for others. Andrea has also
worked hard to maintain our seed inventory and provides planting plans for each
crew every time they go out to plant.
Gwen is now learning the ropes of managing our records once a planting
is done. It’s super important that we
have good, complete records both for our own use as well as for maintaining our
ability to trace crops back.
Our Strawberry Day event is coming up on June 17, and yes it
looks like we’ll have strawberries! We
hope to see you at the party, or join us for the weekend and do some
camping! We have had a few CSA member
visitors this spring and we welcome more.
If you’re interested in camping, we’d love to offer you a spot in one of
our two campgrounds or reserve our cabins for your stay.
|
Bee pollinating the strawberries |
As I write this article on my back porch, I have marveled at
the dozens of hummingbirds and the many bumblebees that I see coming to visit
the columbine flowers in our yard. Our
strawberries are being pollinated by small bees I collectively call “sweat
bees.” As the light dims and the day turns to night, I am in awe of the
whippoorwills singing to me. After a
five year absence when we didn’t hear them in our valley, we’re very thankful
that they’ve returned! Every night we
listen as they sing us to sleep and every morning they wake us up like an alarm
clock, right outside our window. Despite
a challenging spring, life is good!
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