Summer at the Homestead & the Exponential Accumulation of Responsibility

That abnormal, irregular, precarious Spring is behind us (good riddance), we are firmly planted in Summer soil, finally warm to the touch, and we’re experiencing a motivating sense of relief and accomplishment.

Spring ought to be a sprint. It’s about acceleration and rapidity, fast twitch muscle fibers. There will be hurdles, not always evenly spaced or easily anticipated.

Summer ought to be a marathon. It’s about pace and endurance, slow twitch muscle fibers. Randomly but not unexpectedly, there are still hurdles.

In the Wintertime, we feel more like livestock farmers, herdsfolk. Ewes are uncomfortably pregnant in the barn. There are late-night barn check-ins, assisted deliveries, and bottle-feedings. We’re working to keep warm and dry, giving our animals comfort, without completely isolating them from their natural, seasonal outdoor environment and authentic behavior.

In the Springtime, responsibilities shift, accumulate steadily, and we feel less like rugged Yellowstone ranchers and more like delicate Nursery horticulturalists. The livestock, Mother Ewes and toddler Lambs especially, having weathered the cold vulnerable months, have proven their self-sufficiency and earned the trust necessary to allow a realignment of focus toward the garden and its preparation. It’s time to start thinking about feeding humans, ourselves and our shareholders. We are working in the Nursery and the Hoophouses, tediously sowing and nurturing immature seedlings. The garden is populated gradually. We’re able to contend with the weeds. We don’t yet have to commit time to the harvest.

In the Summertime, our eyes start to glaze over a bit. Responsibilities have accumulated exponentially. The sheep and their aggressively-maturing lambs need to be herded to new pasture with appropriate forage every day. The chicken paddock needs to be similarly managed. The nursery is busy again with young seedlings growing for late summer/fall transplants. The garden is full. Beds that were harvested in the Spring are flipped and reworked for the too-soon return of cool season vegetables for Autumn harvest. We struggle to contend with, and our crops struggle to compete with, easily germinating and rapidly growing summer weeds. There are ongoing fresh harvests requiring mindful pulling, plucking, handling, and storage. Long season summer crops need to be managed and maintained. All the things are happening and everything needs to be done.

This time of year we admit, humbly, that it’s a whole lot. But we’ve not lost our appreciation for the privilege to coexist and grow with the farm’s complexity, diversity, and seasonality. We’re very grateful for the opportunity to encounter and navigate so many useful, profound lessons and experiences.

We are thankful for helping hands around the farm. Dorothy, pictured gathering Garlic below, has been reliable and productive week after week. Our generous parents have helped clean seed trays, dig Potatoes, pull Carrots, pluck Peas, and weed long rows.

Week 6 CSA Harvest:

New Potatoes

We hope folks have been able to enjoy their New Potatoes promptly and creatively. We’ve had standard fried and browned skillet slices, boiled and baked whole Potatoes, and a strange purple/blue mash that sounded creative in our heads but was admittedly cartoonish on the plate. Last week, we harvested mainly from our Yukon Gold and Adirondack Blue Potato hills while this week, we’ll dig small red spuds from our Spring garden. We’ll supplement with leftover Golds and Blues from last week’s harvest. These tubers are still new and minimally processed, so we recommend preparing them soon as they will not have the shelf stability of traditionally cured storage potatoes.

Carrots

A nice Carrot harvest indicates that a gardener has finally got it figured out. Every aspect of Carrot cultivation is complicated and can make them a challenge to grow successfully. They can’t be transplanted but need to be direct-seeded and carefully germinated over a period of as long as two weeks. They sprout slowly and unevenly, much slower than their weed competition. In order to form substantial and uniform roots, the soil needs to be well-prepared, loose, and aerated. They need to be thinned aggressively to allow properly-spaced sowings and regular growth. They require patience and adequate moisture. They need to be pulled carefully. They’re worth it.

We’ll know when our Carrot production has evolved from amateur to truly professional when, rather than carefully and nervously pulling one eligible root at a time, we’re able to mindlessly yank handfuls or 6-12 mature and uniform carrots all at once. This Spring’s Carrot harvest has shown hints of legitimate professionalism and it feels like an accomplishment, an evolution. We’re delighted to share these delicious, nutritious roots.

Snow Peas

We’ve never grown Peas under plastic, well-trellised in a hoophouse, as we have this season. What a difference it has made! We can hardly believe our eyes each morning when we peek inside and see taller vines, new flowers, and mature, harvestable pods. Spring Pea season ought to have winded down by now, but it endures, and we’re thrilled.

Kale & Collards

Curly Kale, Dinosaur Kale, and Collard Green varieties continue to grow nicely, despite the approaching dry summer heat. We’ll continue to harvest nice leaves until they start to slow down and lose quality. Kale and Collards are cool season crops and typically thrive in the Spring and Fall.

Sun Gold Cherry Tomatoes

These candy vegetables are starting to ripen. As with Peas, this is our first season seriously growing tomatoes in a hoophouse. Everything grows “better” under plastic, but “better” is subjective. The foliage certainly grows faster, too fast maybe. We need to maintain these vines regularly or we risk them growing out of control. Lower leaves need to be pruned, side shoots need to be suckered, we need to keep the vines and bushes lightweight and manageable.

We’re practicing the “lower and lean” Tomato vine management method both in the hoophouse and in our field beds. Each Tomato vine grows up a string toward the 12-foot ceiling of our hoophouse or the top of their 7-foot field trellis. When the vine reaches the ceiling, ideally, the fruits at the bottom of the plant have ripened and once they’re harvested, the top of the plant can be lowered back down the string, allowing further space for the vine to regrow back up the string. When the vine again reaches the ceiling, the second fruit set ought to have been harvested and the vine can be lowered once again. This process repeats all summer long. At the end of the season, Tomato vines, especially Cherry varieties, can reach lengths as long as 30 feet.

Currently, our hoophouse Tomato foliage is growing too well while our fruits are ripening slowly. The vines are 12 feet tall, touching the ceiling, with fruit sets of as many as 70 Cherry Tomatoes still green. We can’t lower the vine until those fruits are harvested, but we need more headroom to allow the vine to continue growing upward. It seems like we will be required to trellis creatively in the upcoming weeks. It’s a challenge, but it’s awfully fun. It’s awesome.

We will begin distributing our few sweet and ripe Sun Golds this week. Our first harvest will be light, just a treat, but expect the availability of ripe Tomatoes to increase dramatically through July and August.

Sweet Peppers

As available, full-sized Green and ripe Purple Bell and Sweet Italian Peppers will be included in this week’s box. We love to grow peppers. Bell Peppers, Carmens, Shishitos, Anaheims, Jalapenos, Bananas, and other specialties diversify our staked and weaved rows of Pepper plants. This week’s harvest is sweet, so don’t worry yet about anticipating spice. We will prepare you when the heat comes.

Head Lettuce

Good Lettuce is significantly more difficult to harvest after the Solstice. Lettuce loves cool, uniform weather. In the heat and drought of Summer, the plants are more sensitive and can get bitter fast. While we’re working on some heat tolerant varieties for later in the Summer, we’re still harvesting Spring-planted, cool season Lettuce stock. In an effort to delay the inevitable onset of Summer bitterness, we had stategically interplanted these greens under the shaded canopies of trellised Tomato and Cucumber vines, but Lettuce is a not a Summer crop and after the Spring drought, our leaves may have more bitterness than we’d hoped for. While we think it’s still acceptable and certainly useful, your salads may require some extra dressing. We’re harvesting Green Crisp Salanova heads this week.

Summer Squash

To call this year’s Summer Squash harvest prolific would be an understatement. Zucchini, Yellow Squash, and bicolor Zephyr Summer Squashes will be included again this week.

Sage

We’ll include leaves of Sage this week as we allow our Basil to regenerate. Eat it, dry it, save it, smell it, burn it, however you like. Successions of Cilantro will continue to be sown to compliment Summer harvests.

Garlic

We’ve harvested our Garlic bulbs and have begun the process of curing them for long term storage. Like New Potatoes, the Garlic distributed this week has had less processing time and should be prioritized as future deliveries will have more long term stability.

Eggs

Egg production is steadily increasing and we are happy to distribute full and half dozens to shareholders again this week. We are relieved to report no raccoon or mink issues this summer! A reminder that we will take any egg cartons you may have laying around your home to re-purpose here - as well as any food scraps that we can give to our flock to pick through - or to add to our compost pile.

Flowers

Bouquets are big, diverse and vibrant this week! We are officially overwhelmed with flowers so if you didn’t sign up for a weekly flower share but would enjoy adding-on flowers any given week for a special occasion just text one of us and we’d be happy to coordinate that with you and get it added to your delivery box.

Happy Independence Day! If you think of it, share ideas and recipes with us throughout the week that highlight your week 6 items!

Erin & David