Mid-Summer Farm Update

By Capt Jack, The Dog

Hello Everyone!  Can you believe the first day of July is this week! There’s been so much going on around here I have kind of lost track of time. I recently heard my Dad (Farmer Richard) tell someone we are now past the longest day of the year and  the days will start to get progressively shorter. Thankfully we still have several more months of summer to enjoy, and a lot more vegetables to eat before winter rolls in!
 
I wanted to give you a glimpse into what I’m seeing as I travel through the fields each day with Farmer Richard.  Let’s get an important discussion out of the way first….Garlic.  This is the time of the year when Dad and I start to visit the garlic field every day, and sometimes twice a day.  We’re

checking the garlic to see if it’s ready to harvest yet.  Dad says it’s not quite ready yet, we’re thinking next week will be the big week of harvest.
 
Here’s something else exciting to share.  The corn is starting to tassle!  We’ll need to put up all the shiny bird deterrents, fence and electric tape pretty soon to keep the critters out of the field.  We’re thinking we’ll be picking corn within a few weeks.  You may be wondering about the rest of the popular summer vegetables like tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers.  I’m happy to report the tomatoes, tomatillos and peppers all look healthy and fantastic!  The cucumbers have been a challenge this year.  We will have cucumbers, they’ll just be a little behind schedule.
   
We’ve been harvesting quite a lot of broccoli last week and this week.  Our first and second plantings of the year are heading up and the guys just keep cutting and cutting!  It’s kind of funny to consider

that while we’re harvesting our spring-planted broccoli, we’re also planting our fall broccoli.  We have one more planting to do next week and then our 2016 broccoli plantings will be done.  Mom has been asking Dad when we’ll have cauliflower.  He keeps telling her the spring-planted cauliflower is waiting for cooler temperatures to make a head.  The cauliflower must think like I do. When it’s really hot, like it was last weekend, I prefer to work minimally and hang out in a cool place.  This week has been a much more mild week, so I think we’ll start seeing the heads forming on the cauliflower plants very soon.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              
Wait until you see the big, beautiful head of leaf lettuce in your boxes this week!  We’ve had pretty
good early season head lettuce this year.  Rain and humidity can be very detrimental to a lettuce crop, but my Dad chose some good lettuce varieties this year and they held up well despite some rain and hot days.  We’re thankful to have had these lettuces this year as our spring salad mix and spinach has been quite a challenge.  We are looking forward to the fall when we plant spinach and salad mix again.  They grow much better in the fall.
 

 Oh, I wanted to let you know the winter squash field looks awesome right now!  Despite a few annoying bugs on the plants, they look very healthy and are filling out very nicely.  We’re optimistic that we’ll have a good winter squash crop to harvest later this fall.  The pumpkins also look pretty good.  Some of you may have seen them when you were at our party a few weeks ago.
 
In addition to the crops, we’ve also been busy dealing with weeds.  We were caught up with weeding earlier in the season, and then we had a period of rain and the temperatures spiked.  These are the perfect conditions for weeds to take advantage of and they literally grew overnight!  While I really don’t like weeds, I have to admit I have a lot of respect for the intelligence of a weed seed.  Weeds are opportunists and will establish themselves whenever and wherever conditions are favorable.  Dad says the weeds are going to slow down now.  Weeds like to multiply by producing seeds that drop back into the soil or blow around.  They have to have enough warm days to do so though.  Now that we’re past the longest day of the year, the weeds won’t waste their time germinating because they know they don’t have enough time this year to produce seed.  Unfortunately they don’t just go away, they’ll lay in the soil and wait until next year to grow.  For this year though, it means the pressure of having to hand weed will let up a little bit.
 
Well, I have a lot more to tell you, but I’m out of room and need to get back to work.  We hope you’ve been enjoying your boxes so far this year and continue to have fun cooking and eating!

Spring Farm Update!

By Farmer Richard and his sidekicks Andrea & Captain Jack the Dog

Spring is different every year and as we write this update temperature is on our minds.  We were happy to see the snow melt away towards the end of March…..and then woke up to a winter wonderland on March 23!  Once the snow melted again and things dried out, we were able to dig overwintered parsnips and sunchokes….just before it rained!  After some rainy, cold days, we were thankful for warm days in April which allowed us to get some field work done.  We planted all the parsnips as well as the first beets, carrots & peas.  The transplanting team worked hard to plant all the onions and then moved right into transplanting the first crop of head lettuce, fennel, basil, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage and kohlrabi.  They also managed to get the parsley and Brussels sprouts in the ground!  Thankfully everything was in place before the next wave of rain.  This past week has been cool and wet.  In fact, it’s downright chilly today and there is a chance of frost!  Don’t worry….the crew covered the strawberries yesterday to protect the blossoms so there should be plenty of strawberries to pick on June 21 at Strawberry Day!  (Mark your calendars!)

Weather talk aside, we’ve had a pretty good spring and have a lot of good field updates.  First, our asparagus and rhubarb crops are producing beyond our expectations!  Both of these perennial crops take about 3 years to establish before we can do any substantial harvests off them.  Over the past few years we’ve put in new rhubarb and asparagus plantings.  Richard & Jack have been waiting patiently (Andrea not so patiently) for our new fields to become established and this is the first year we can harvest from all of these fields!   Despite the cool weather we’re still seeing some impressive asparagus harvests.  The rhubarb field is also producing well and the bright red stalks are gorgeous!
As we look ahead to June, we should mention that our first two pea plantings are in and looking good.  Sugar snap and snow peas should be ready for the first to middle part of June.  The pea vine looks like it might be ready as early as next week.  The strawberry field is blossoming and the plants look healthy.  We do watch the weather closely though (that darn weather topic again).  The blossoms can’t take the frost, so we’ve covered the field with our giant field blankets to get them through the week…just in case Jack Frost pays our valley a visit.

Anyone interested in garlic?  We’re happy to report the garlic crop appears to have overwintered nicely with about a 99% survival rate!  We’re planning to harvest green garlic next week….and before we know it we’ll be enjoying garlic scapes and fresh, juicy bulb garlic.
Our pastures are lush and green and the cattle love their days grazing the hillsides.  Our goat pasture is full of young energy with nine new kids and more on the way!  We’re also happy to report we have pigs roaming our pastures again!  Last week we got 15 piglets.  It took them a few days to acclimate to their new home, but it looks like they’ve adapted well.  They’ve also grown accustomed to the nightly deliveries of compost from the packing shed. Just like us, they are enjoying many spinach salads for dinner.  The chickens moved to the pasture with the pigs. They’re a little more vulnerable to pesky predators, but are learning to defend and protect themselves. Manuel and Juan Pablo have done five plantings  of “salad greens.” This is our first week of harvest from our spring-planted salad greens.  We should have salad mix, baby kale and more baby arugula coming soon!  We’re also learning how to use a new vacuum seeder we got this spring. We’ll use it to plant our cilantro, dill, bunched arugula, baby bok choi and radishes.  It was fun having a shiny, new piece of equipment.  It’s dirty now, but seems to be working well and we’re thankful to have it as it will help us fine-tune the plantings for greater precision.
Jack is happy to have the field crew back from Mexico so he can play ball at lunch time.  Richard has been hunting for morel mushrooms in his spare time and Andrea is having fun cooking them along with asparagus, spinach, ramps and all of the other tasty green things available now!
Kelly & Beth have been busy in the office preparing for the start of deliveries.  Lately they’ve been working on processing orders for maple syrup.  Our friend and neighbor, Alvin Miller, had another pretty good year for making maple syrup.  If you haven’t taken advantage of this offer yet, don’t wait. We’ve extended our deadline until May 20th, but that’s the absolute last day for orders!  Alvin needs time to bottle the syrup, so make sure you send your order in as soon as possible so Alvin knows how many bottles to fill!   We’re happy to have another season of CSA underway. While farming isn’t easy, we are blessed with great customers and a great crew!  Our crew has been practicing flexibility for the past several weeks.  On warm, sunny days they stay late to get the work done.  On rainy and cold days they help in the packing shed and greenhouses doing whatever needs to be done.  Without a hard-working crew, we couldn’t be the farm we are today.  We’re glad that you’ll be sharing with us in the bounty of this year’s harvest.  Rest assured we have a lot of delicious food coming your way!

Salad Planting, Team Effort

Juan Pablo and Manuel, our Salad Planting
Team and so much more!

Let me start out by saying that we may call Manuel Morales Peralta (aka Caliman) and Juan Pablo Cervantes Correa (aka Pablito) our salad planters, but they plant a lot more than just salad greens. Their almost weekly plantings consist of radishes, cilantro, baby bok choi, baby kale, arugula and more! They have been the salad planting team for the past two years, and they have done a great job! They understand and participate in the entire process from preparing the beds for planting to irrigating and putting on row covers after planting and finally the harvest.

Weighing the seed to calibrate the salad
planter before heading to the field

     

Juan Pablo and Manuel
  calibrating the salad planter

They are very conscientious about each planting and pay attention to all the fine details. If we have a new lot of seed, they calibrate the salad planting machine to make sure we put out the right amount of seed. Machines aren’t always right though. They follow up in the field to make sure everything is planting at the correct rate. There is a lot to keep track of: seed depth, seeds per foot, rows per bed, planter settings, etc. They execute this process every week, complete with a full set of records and maps for our files.

So far this year they have done 17 plantings with a few more to go. There are a lot of steps in the process to get to the final product – a bag of washed salad mix packed into your CSA box. There are many people involved in making that happen, but we wanted to focus on these two gentlemen this week so you can get to know them better. They not only share a bond here at Harmony Valley Farm, but also at home in Mexico!

Juan Pablo always happy,
even when calibrating
the salad planter

Manuel and Juan Pablo making sure everything is okay before
moving ahead with planting. Notice the irrigation pipe in
background waiting to to be laid out in the field to water the
newly planted seeds.

So what is the deal with Manuel and Juan Pablo anyway? We have written a little about Manuel in a previous newsletter that included his brothers who also work on the farm. You can find that newsletter in October 17-19, 2011. At that time there were only 3 brothers here. However, we are happy to say there are now four Morales brothers working with us. That is it for the Morales brothers, there are no more, but there are a few sisters, One of which is a girlfriend to Juan Pablo! I will talk more about her in a moment. Manuel is married to a beautiful woman named Veronica with three boys at home. Eric is the oldest at 15, Manuel is 10 and Alexander is 5. Of course I asked the question, “Are you planning a child every 5 years? Maybe a new baby this year?” So, both Manuel and Alvaro (one of Manuel’s brothers helping to translate) shook their head and laughed a pretty straight forward no.

The Morales brothers: Manuel, Rafael, Jose Alejandro and Alvaro

Manuel lives near his entire family in the San Miguel area in Mexico. When back home he likes to go to the park and out to eat with his family and even dancing with Veronica. They have almost weekly meals at their parents’ house with his siblings and their families. I picture the Christmas chaos at my house and admire this family all the more. The genuine love and caring for not only their family, but the entire crew is admirable. They even invite Juan Pablo over for most of these dinners and he will go a lot of places as a member of the family. This brings me to, who is Juan Pablo?

Cervantes Correa brothers: Alfredo and Juan Pablo

So Juan Pablo is a single guy with his eye on Araceli Morales, a sister to Manuel. They have been ‘dating’ a few years now and Juan Pablo has been building a house in Mexico for when they get married, and no wedding before it is completed. Before you get too excited, there is no date planned yet, although I have been pushing for one. I was asked to go and of course I would love to attend that wedding. We will see when they actually set a date. I hear that the house is almost complete, just a few more windows and smaller framing work to finish it up. I started going through Juan Pablo’s family and found that each brother or sister has a whole story so I think I have them all with 7 siblings’ total. One of which, Alfredo, started working with us last year and is also ‘dating’ another Morales sister. The two families do like each other! One of Juan Pablo’s older brothers, Francisco, was killed in an accident last year at the age of 26. That was a hard story to hear, and for him to tell. His entire family is, in Alvaro’s words, ‘very religious’. They attend church together weekly and both Juan Pablo and Alfredo were helpers in their Catholic church in Mexico. Two of their sisters, Maria Carla and Alicia, still play piano, guitars and other instruments for their church at least once a week. Juan Pablo said they are actually there most nights. When in Mexico and not working on his house, Juan Pablo helps his father, Juan, with his business fixing tires in his tire shop.

One big family: Alfredo, Manuel, Rafael, Jose Alejandro, Alvaro and Juan Pablo

So now that I am not on the newsletter, I have a little more room to write. I have watched the way all of these six men interact with each other and it warms my heart to know that they truly care about not only each other, but the work they do as well.  I talked with Andrea and Richard about these guys and here are some of their comments.  

Manuel is always upbeat and ready to go.  He is willing to do anything that needs to be done.  Some of his other responsibilities include, but not limited to: irrigation, planting cover crop seeds and loading trucks after hours and so much more!

Juan Pablo gives the biggest, most sincerely warm hugs and always has a smile and a giggle to share.  He has stepped up this summer and has taken over animal responsibilities. He has a gentle touch with each one of them.  He also helps in irrigation and harvest crews.

Bottom line is that we really appreciate these two men and all they have contributed to Harmony Valley Farm.  We are lucky to have them and look forward to many more years of them helping us out here!