Late Summer Update

By Richard de Wilde

There is surely an expectation that farmers always talk about the weather…and it’s true, we do!  We check three different weather forecasts daily and plan our work schedule accordingly. The one thing we can say about the weather we’ve had this summer is that it has been pretty consistent…. consistently Hot & Dry! In fact, I think records have been set for both temperature and rainfall…or lack thereof. According to the National Weather service, many parts of southern Wisconsin are now classified as being in a D4 drought given the lack of rain for three months. Thankfully, on Tuesday morning of this week we woke up to the most glorious sound…. RAIN! We received three-tenths of an inch, and while that isn’t that much, we were grateful for every drop! 

Checking the "benchmark" point for one of 
our irrigation sites

The good news is that the dry weather greatly decreases disease caused by wet foliage.  The challenge is to get enough water to keep crops growing. We have seven irrigation permits from the Wisconsin DNR to pump surplus water from the North Fork of the Bad Axe River and two feeder streams. We have very strict rules to follow when pumping and a “benchmark” water level below which we would NOT be able to pump.  Fortunately, the underground aquifer system here is very stable and our benchmarks have remained well above the cut-off! In many states, including parts of Wisconsin and Minnesota, the underground aquifers have become depleted. If this severe drought were to continue for several years, that picture may change in our area as well. At this point we are pumping surplus water at very low rates, not measurable depth from water run-off to the gulf.   Without our ability to irrigate from surplus water, we would be having a very different year.  In years like we are experiencing now, irrigation is the difference between having or not having a crop. 

Jose Antonio, one of our 
irrigation experts!

We are also very much aware of the benefits we are reaping now from the many years we have invested in building organic matter in our soil, which increases water holding ability. As a result, we have been blessed with not only crops, but excellent crops! Additionally, I’d like to acknowledge and extend my gratitude to Manuel Morales and Jose Antonio (our two main irrigation guys) who have worked hard, long hours to try to keep up with our crops’ water needs. 

Manuel Morales making his rounds to set up
and check irrigation pumps, manage leaks, etc.

Throughout the summer we’ve had several extreme heat waves with temperatures in the 90’s and even some days that have topped 100 degrees!  Extreme temperatures presented us with some extreme challenges. In some crops, including melons, peppers, and tomatoes, we have observed that the plants did not set fruit during those extreme periods of heat. We can clearly see a gap between early set fruit and late. It’s really strange to observe healthy, lush plants with no disease that have a greatly reduced production of ripening fruit.  The high heat days were also a challenge for our production schedule and harvest crews. We always schedule harvests for greens in the morning when it’s a little cooler.  This strategy proved to be essential at times when plants were wilting in the afternoon heat! We also had to be cognizant of the impact extreme heat has on the health of our field crew. Even though our crew has a generous supply of drinking water in the field, there were several days when we started late and ended early to the benefit of the crops, but also to maintain the health of our crew members.  There were even several days when we had to cease harvests during the heat of the day, and we started the workday an hour earlier so as to maximize work in the cooler parts of the day.  Thankfully, we invested in air conditioning units for all of our employee housing several years ago, so they have a cool house to retreat to and get a good night’s rest. 

Using sprinklers to water a new seeding of 
fall storage turnips so they'll germinate!

We are now in the busy transition between summer crops and early fall crops. We have made some adjustments to our preseason plan, i.e., later planting in anticipation of warmer late summer and early fall temperatures. Every direct seeding and transplanted crop we’ve planted has had to have immediate water to germinate and survive.  A very challenging task!  We have mostly been successful as your boxes reflect. Our fall crops which have required irrigation from start to finish but are looking good! It has been a strange and challenging year for sure! We have invested in more irrigation equipment, gained three new irrigation permits, and we’re currently in the process of setting up a new well that we’ll be able to use for irrigation.  Despite the investment in time and resources, our efforts have proven to be a life saver!

We have good looking fall crops including lettuce, spinach, radishes, beets, carrots, parsnips, and turnips. We hope to finish winter squash harvest this week and we’ve already started harvesting what I consider to be possibly the best rutabaga crop ever!  All of these crop outcomes were achieved only because of timely irrigation.  We are now in the overlap of finishing up harvest of late summer crops i.e., peppers and tomatoes whilst we are initiating harvest of our fall crops.  It is an extremely busy time of the season and it’s been a challenge to find space in your CSA boxes each week for all the vegetables we have available!

One of our pumpkins ripening
while nestled in a bed of vetch!

Our Fall Harvest Party is coming up on October 1^st and we hope you’ll plan to join us!  We have some nice-looking pumpkins for you to choose from this year as well as other crops we’re excited to share with you!  This year we planted the pumpkins in a trial field that we did as no-till, so you’ll have the opportunity to see this farming strategy up close, complete with some hearty vetch cover crop!  As always, we thank you for your continued support of our farm and hope you’ve enjoyed the season so far.  We still have more exciting crops to send your way, so get ready for jicama, sweet potatoes, Brussels sprouts and more!