Vegetable Farmers in August
The beginning of August marks the midway point for our 2022 season and presents an important opportunity for reflection and evaluation. We’ve had W’s and L’s, homers and strikeouts, first downs and punts. We’re relieved and optimistic to have had a sweet corn crop, but pessimists regarding the fate of our cucumber tunnel. We’re happy we’ve maintained 10+ items per week, but disappointed with our summer greens gap. We’re happy with the regenerated condition of our pastures and the health and happiness of our sheep herd, but disappointed with our egg production and flock management. We’ve patted ourselves on the back and kick ourselves.
Our shareholders, nevertheless, have showed patience and grace, and we try to do the same for ourselves. We try to remember that the project is a noble and purposeful one, that it is only our sophomore season, and that while the disappointment of our shortcomings is indeed unavoidable, CSA is Community Supported, not Market Dependent, Agriculture. Thank you for participating in our community of like-motivated families, for your essential support, and for giving us this opportunity to learn and grow.
It has been quite a different season from 2021. The lack of rainfall on our farm has been more of an issue than we like to admit. With our limited means, we have always thought of intentional irrigation as necessary for establishing healthy seedlings, from infancy through late childhood, and rainfall as necessary for sustaining those crops to maturity.
The beginning of August marks the midway point for our 2022 season and presents an important opportunity for reflection and evaluation. We’ve had W’s and L’s, homers and strikeouts, first downs and punts. We’re relieved and optimistic to have had a sweet corn crop, but pessimists regarding the fate of our cucumber tunnel. We’re happy we’ve maintained 10+ items per week, but disappointed with our summer greens gap. We’re happy with the regenerated condition of our pastures and the health and happiness of our sheep herd, but disappointed with our egg production and flock management. We’ve patted ourselves on the back and kick ourselves.
Our shareholders, nevertheless, have showed patience and grace, and we try to do the same for ourselves. We try to remember that the project is a noble and purposeful one, that it is only our sophomore season, and that while the disappointment of our shortcomings is indeed unavoidable, CSA is Community Supported, not Market Dependent, Agriculture. Thank you for participating in our community of like-motivated families, for your essential support, and for giving us this opportunity to learn and grow. and adulthood. We’re in collaboration, an alliance, a duet with Mother Nature. We rely on her, as we don’t control all the variables. This strategy, in many ways, has unfortunately been less dependable than last season. This dry summer on our farm is undoubtedly presenting lower yields- slow, precarious flowering and uncertain fruit sets.
Our goal was, and continues to be, simple: Grow Good Food. It wasn’t necessarily critical to grow perfect food or restaurant-quality food. We just want to grow good food, a lot of it, naturally and organically.
This is sadly our last week having Erin on the farm full-time. She’ll be returning to the classroom next week, teaching AP Environmental Science and Biology.
We’ll be handing out the following foods this week:
Cabbage
Our spring-planted cabbage has been fully harvested. This week, we’ll distribute all that we have, both red and green heads, as available to all shareholders. We knew it was theoretically possible, but we were blown away by the post-harvest side sprouts some of our cabbage plants put out. After the initial head is harvested, if cut correctly, the plant puts out about a half dozen miniature heads that we like to call “lazy man’s Brussel Sprouts.” This wasn’t a planned harvest that we’re confident we can share with the CSA, but it was an interesting observation.
Yellow Onion
We’re pulling and curing the remainder of our spring-planted onions and will continue to distribute them until they’re gone. They’re round and uniform this year with a sweet and recognizable flavor.
Carmen Sweet Peppers
They’re turning! We’re starting to pluck red ripe sweet frying peppers this week.
Jalapenos/Shishitos
It was mentioned earlier that a lack of rainfall has led to slow flowering and fruit set. This seems to be most obvious in our rows of hot peppers- Jalapenos, Anaheims, and Shishitos. This is part of the reason why we have to distribute these as available. We can’t always be confident that we’ll have a full harvest for the full CSA. This week, we plan to give out our first hot Jalapenos to home delivery shareholders and Shishitos to pickups on Sunday.
Cherry Tomatoes
We have about 200 Sun Gold cherry plants putting out buckets of fruit. We can’t get enough and we hope you can’t either.
Tomatoes
Meaty ripe heirloom and slicer tomatoes going out the door this week as well. Let us know what your think!
Beans
Dragon Tongues are slowing down and pole beans are pick up.
Summer Squash
Our summer squash has been a little disappointing so far, but we will be distributing yellow and bicolor squashes this week as they become available. We have a 100-foot row of Delicata, our favorite squash, maturing this month. We are looking forward to this transition from summer to winter squashes including Butternuts on the way.
Herbs
We interplanted Basil with our Sweet Corn and as the corn stalks defoliate and the canopy thins, more energy is going to those herbs. Better late than never, our Cilantro sprouted this week (thank you to our CSA shareholder and volunteer Dorothy!). With rain in the forecast, we hope to have more herbs to harvest to accompany ripening tomatoes and peppers before the end of summer.
Eggs
Production has gotten better. We’ve decided to distribute full dozens this week to our Home Delivery shareholders, though we’ll likely only have half dozens for Farm Pick Up folks. We’re keeping track of our distribution and will be try to be fair in sharing these harvests as laying performance fluctuates. The hens have been safe and they’re getting lots of bugs, forage, and food scraps.
Flowers
Fresh vegetables for your mouths and another beautiful bouquet for your eyes and noses!
*Whole and Half shares of Lamb:
We will soon be processing meat shares for the freezer, grown purely on mother’s milk and wild grasses. If you’re interested in purchasing a full share, we will be asking for a $150 nonrefundable deposit as a reservation. Let us know if you’re interested and we can provide further details. CSA members get the first opportunity to reserve before we make lamb shares publicly available.
Thank you all and have a great week!
Erin & David