Fall Farm Update: Reflections on the 2019 Growing Season

By Farmer Richard

Harvest crews working to gather harvest before the storms hit

Recently we came up on the one year anniversary of the 2018 fall floods.  While we are thankful we have not experienced another major weather event like that in this growing season, the weather patterns of 2019 have made this season another extremely challenging year to be farming.  We started out with a cold and wet spring which made planting seeds and transplanting plants from the greenhouse very challenging!  We are all avid weather map and forecast watchers and our crew is 110% with us.  We made good planning decisions and when a hint of dry weather looked imminent, we pulled out all the stops to prepare ground, plant and transplant.  On those days, we worked until it was too dark to see and if the forecasted rain missed us we continued the next morning.  We pushed the limits, we transplanted in the rain, we harvested in the rain.  We had to take some time off when the storms were severe.  When we did get some fast, heavy rains, the extensive repair work we did to creek bottoms and berms last fall proved to be effective and mostly held and protected fields!

Black Futsu Pumpkin plants starting to
flower earlier this season

Despite the challenges, we did manage to plant all our crops fairly timely, even when it was wet and cold.   In late May and early June the weather shifted to the other end of the spectrum and became extremely hot and humid!  The heat loving plants took off and made up for lost time!  Unfortunately, so did the weeds.  We had to play our cards right to make weed control a priority when it was dry enough and pushed the limits at times to complete some critical cultivation.  Hot and wet weather also brings its own problems with disease, poor pollination and even nutrient problems.  In early summer we were seeing some disease and fertility problems in some of our crops.  We collected leaves from some of the affected plants and sent them off to a laboratory for a sap analysis (kind of like a blood test for plants) to diagnose the problems.  With results in hand, we set out to correct some nutrient and microbial deficiencies likely caused by the excess water.  We applied copious amounts of beneficial organisms, soluble nutrients and trace minerals that the plants needed and saw some dramatic responses in our pepper, eggplant and squash crops.  We also had several weeks of growth during that hot period where plants that should have been setting fruit were not doing so (tomatoes, melons, squash and watermelons), which resulted in low yields.  Despite our best efforts, only one of our five sweet corn plantings was the quality we had hoped for.  Sadly, the cold wet conditions followed by the hot and wet weather not only took a toll on our crops, but our native pollinators as well.  We rely on their services and were concerned that many of our native pollinator creatures were very late to show up.  Thankfully the populations seem to have recovered.  While we all would’ve liked to have seen more tomatoes and sweet corn in the box, we have been able to include most items we had planned for in the CSA boxes.  So, while you may have been just minimally affected by our crop deficits, our bottom line has taken a hit with some of our crops that we plan to have in quantities that allow us to supply CSA boxes and then have extra to sell to wholesale buyers.  The good news is, we did have some better weather in August and our fall crops actually look quite nice!  Time and again, Mother Nature continues to provide for us, even when she’s at times a bit cantankerous.

Farmer Richard inspecting cover crop

As we head into fall, we’re happy to report our cover crop plantings have been timely and some fields have well-established cover crops that we’ll reap the benefits of next year.  Some of our fall crops are coming in ahead of schedule, including celeriac, carrots, parsnips, rutabaga, turnips and winter storage radishes.  We’ve already started harvesting many of our root crops and will continue doing so until they’re all in.  The sweet potatoes look promising, but need a couple more weeks of growth.  Fall greens, such as escarole, look very nice, but the recent 80°F weather has them coming in earlier than we had hoped for.  Sadly, we did lose 50% of our spinach stand last week when we had 4.5 inch or rain, but we have more plantings coming and they look promising.  In the midst of vegetable farming, we’ve also managed to get sufficient hay put away for our animals despite forecasts of hay shortages in the rest of the farming community.  If Mother Nature will afford us just get a couple of dry weeks to get our roots harvested and plant garlic, sunchokes and horseradish for next year, we would be most grateful.

Despite the challenges of this season, we are proud of the CSA boxes we have delivered this year.  The boxes have been plentiful, colorful and delicious.  If you’ve been pleased with your shares this year, we’d appreciate your help in spreading the good word about our CSA to your friends, family members, work associates, etc. We’re hopeful that our membership numbers will grow for the 2020 season, but we need your help to make that happen!  Yes, we’re already laying out plans for next year!

As I reflect on the past few months, I realize we have learned a lot from this season!  As we’ve dealt with crop challenges due to fertility, etc, we have all became more aware of the very subtle differences in the many shades of green of our plants which will help us care for our plants better in the future.  We watched for blossoms, pollinators and fruit set as we learned to observe and listen to our plants more closely.  As we learn more about the value of our microbial communities in the soil, we have gained a new appreciation for the role they play in our environment and still have trouble fathoming the billions of micro-organisms that surround us!   We realize we are all part of a living organism.  There is a life force that emanates from the soil, the plants, the animals and people.  The many families that depend on our farm and the many that we provide nourishing food for are all a part of our farm and community.  I want to close with a quote from an interview with Michael Phillips, an organic orchardist growing in New Hampshire.  He wrote a book entitled Mycorrhizal Planet and was featured in an interview in a recent issue of Acres magazine.  He says “The plants and fungi have always sung what I think of as a soil redemption song—and they’ll continue to sing it—and that is what makes life possible on earth.  Our job is to emulate all these good teachings and to make it part of our agriculture, part of our communities, part of our innate understanding of what it is to be a caring human on this blessed planet.”

Weather Update From Farmer Richard…..

Last week we reported on the status of our farm after receiving 8” of rain earlier in the week.  This week I wanted to update you on our status over the past week.  Thankfully we had a few dry days at the end of last week.  We performed a few magic tricks to dry out some beds enough that we could do our scheduled weekly plantings on Friday, including our first planting of fall spinach.  We were proud of our efforts, accomplishments and had smiles on our face at the end of the week!  We had an immediate rain of 1.5” but thankfully the skies cleared on Saturday afternoon and we managed to harvest some beautiful winter squash and finished the potato harvest.  We have an abundant winter squash crop this year and we were pleased to find out it tastes really good just a few days after harvest!  Usually we wait several weeks to eat any as it needs a little time to cure and sweeten up.  All indications are that it is going to be a tasty winter squash season!  We also managed to fix all our field roads and after several days all our animal fences were fixed as well.

Unfortunately, we got more rain and severe storms again Monday night!  Thankfully it was only 4” of rain this time, but it came hard and fast and in several places the wash-outs were worse.  We had to cancel harvest on Tuesday morning and diverted all  available operators and equipment to clean up and fix roads, etc.  We made it through the last event without the bulldozer, which has been in the repair shop.  This time, however, there was some work that was best done with the bulldozer as tractors and skidsteers would’ve just sunk into the mud.  I called the shop and asked them to return it.  They dropped it off Tuesday afternoon and I was able to move enough mud from below our land dam with hopes that we could get through the night without problems if the predicted rain and storms really moved through our area.  Felix G was a trooper and worked with me throughout the day doing a lot of handwork and shoveling to clean up a fence line and clear debris and mud away from the inlet to our land dam that was plugged from the night before.  We were also able to resume harvest Tuesday afternoon! 

We did have about 1.5 inches of rain Tuesday night, but it wasn’t as much or as hard and fast as originally predicted so we fared pretty well.  Our total rainfall over the past two weeks is at about 15 inches now.  We have several days of sunny, dry and cool weather in the forecast, which will be a welcomed relief.

We’ve been pretty fortunate to not have lost as many crops as in previous events, but we are already seeing disease spots on many crops because of the prolonged hot/wet and humid weather.  We could still see more rot and disease spread in some areas if it doesn’t dry out soon.  Please be aware that the shelf life on some of your vegetables may not be what you’re accustomed to simply because of the wet conditions these crops have had to persevere through.  If you notice a spot forming on a tomato or pepper, that’s your cue to use them quickly.  This might be the week to make a batch of tomato sauce or saute all the peppers at one time and use them throughout the week.

I am writing this weather update to simply let you know what’s happening on our farm, which for our CSA members is also “your” farm.  We aren’t looking for pity, we only want to keep you informed and let you know we value your continued support.  Our crew has had some hard days and we all are in need of a spirit lift.  We appreciate the cards and emails of encouragement we have received.  They really help!

Severe Weather Event….Again

By Richard DeWilde

Well here we go again!  Another severe weather event, the third in 3 years.  This is starting to look like an annual event!  What started in 2007, 12 inches in 24 hours, was called at the time a “100 year event.”  Meteorologists no longer refer to 50 or 100 year events, because they now appear to be annual events!

Jack weathering out the storms Tuesday night at Richard's
feet, all snug in a comforting denim shirt.

So what is it like for us to deal with such an event?!  On Monday night it started to rain with possible “heavy rain” in the forecast.  It rained and rained, our weather man referred to it as a “trailer,” new to me but meaning that the band of showers did not just pass through, but the tail end continued to build into heavy showers for 12 hours!  I dumped the rain gauge at 10 PM, emptying 4.5 inches.  I tried to sleep, but our sweet dog Jack kept waking us to adjust his blanket covering because he was terrified by the constant thunder and lightning.  So after a troubled sleep, we rose before dawn to assess the damage.  By morning the total rainfall had risen to 8 inches rain in less than 12 hours.

From past events, the obvious first thing to check is the animal fencing that crosses the creek.  Yep, they were washed out!  Angel and Juan Pablo were here at the first light of dawn to contain our animals.  As of Tuesday night the pigs are in the corral, their two creek fences still not complete.  The cows are all accounted for and contained, but much more fencing work is needed!

One of our field roads off of Wire Hollow Road , completely
washed out from the storm.

Now, on to harvest!  Our pre-dawn assessment found that no fields were accessible.  River and creek crossings, roads to bench fields and the dry washes were all plugged with rock and debris.  We canceled morning harvest, pulled every skilled operator and utilized every piece of equipment to spend the morning fixing roads and our yard to make them passable while the rest of the crew worked in the packing shed and greenhouses to pack things harvested the previous day and worked on trimming and cleaning onions and shallots for storage.

In the afternoon, we loaded up the harvest wagons to resume harvest. Unfortunately, the rain started just as the crews were heading to the field.  It was a wet, muddy afternoon, but we were able to pick peppers, eggplant, tomatoes and tomatillos in the on again/off again rain!  We had to fix some of the tomato trellises that had tipped over with the soggy soil.  Not the most fun day of harvest, but the product was fine and the crew got it done.

Large branches and other debris from the dry wash just down
the road from the field road pictured above.

A disappointing moment in the day was the field report from the corn harvest crew.  We’ve worked very hard to grow the very best crops of corn we have ever grown this year.  Sadly, they found the remaining corn was tipped over from wind and saturated soil that couldn’t support the stalks anymore.  The crop scheduled for picking this week as well as our next and final crop, flattened!  They were and will be able to pick some of it for this week and we’re crossing our fingers that the last crop might perk up with a few sunny days.  Also on that farm, they found all of our beautiful sunchoke stalks laying flat as well.  Argh!

Greens?  We delayed harvest until Wednesday morning because the leaves showed signs of being  water-soaked.  Based on our prior experience, the plant usually recovers from this, but needs some hours of dry weather preferably with sun before we resume harvest.

Vincente blading a washed out field road.

Everything we harvested is muddy and needs to be washed.  No worries, we know how to do that.  Tuesday evening still a steady rain, another “trailer!”  The old “normal” weather, gone, prepare for the worst!  As we finish up this article on Wednesday morning, we’re thankful for blue skies and sunshine.  The crews are back in the fields and we’re preparing to pack the CSA boxes for our Twin Cities members.  We’re making plans to continue the cleanup and will revisit the berms and ditches that failed or were damaged.  We’ll put things back together, build the berms higher and clean out the ditches.  We can’t quit--We have families to feed!

Our changing weather patterns are for real, and I don’t see this erratic weather going away anytime soon.  Should we transition to inside, greenhouse production?  Can we really curb the excess atmospheric carbon and stabilize our climate?  That would be preferable!  The technology is there for clean energy, clean cars, and carbon capture.  Much of the civilized world is already making huge improvements.  But will we?  Do we have the political will and leadership to do it?  I sure hope so.