Getting ready for lots of guests…

Hi folks, Farmer Ruth here with another guest blog post.  We asked for rain, and boy did we get it!  Its been raining enough that we haven’t turned on any irrigation for over two weeks.  

All the sweet corn was seeded before the first big rain, and its already up!  And on Wednesday, we pulled the first 11.5 hour day and got all of the winter squash seed in the ground, and covered.  We are a little short on row cover, so we spent quite some time stretching what we had over as many beds as we could (there are 24 beds of squash).  We did have one more piece of row cover that we didn’t use, because that mourning dove is still nesting on it.  She has 2 chicks who are about old enough to fledge.  This is her third brood of the year, so once they fly off, I think we’ll probably evict her.

All this effort just to keep those pesky cucumber beetles off the squash!

The other thing we were able to get in before the rain was 7 beds of cherry, heirloom, and paste tomatoes in the pick-your-own section, as well as half a bed of tomatillos and half a bed of ground cherries.  And after planting them all, we laid down irrigation lines (for later!) and then mulched them with hay.  Mulching is always a sticky, itchy job, but it was a lot more pleasant in this cool weather, as opposed to mulching last week in the 80 degree mugginess.

 Things are looking very lush and green at the farm, and it’s nice to lift row cover and find that those tiny little plants you put in look like real food all of a sudden.  There’s always some moments of panic before the first share goes out, when you think “do we have enough food!?”  But then you walk around the farm, and all those crops you weeded and covered a while ago have magically grown huge and harvestable.

Broccoli is making little tiny heads already!

The panic was a little stronger this year because of the cool, wet spring we had.  Things didn’t get out as early as last year, and slowed down every time it got especially cold.  But then the crops grew like crazy during those few weeks of unusually hot weather, and they’ve almost caught up to make a normal sized first share. Our first share turns out to be a pretty nice bunch of stuff: Bok Choi, Lettuce, Swiss Chard, Kale, Hakurei Turnips, and Garlic Scapes, and then in the pick-your-own section there’s Garlic Chives, Oregano, Thyme, Sage, and the very first few Sugar Snap Peas, which it’s difficult not to snack on every time you walk by. 

lettuces

Bok Choi

Peas!

Garlic Chives

Redbor Kale

Turnips

The garlic is starting to make a bulb!

Speaking of things that have been growing like weeds, Petey the goat has been growing like crazy.  He has little tiny horns, and lots of energy.  He is pretty good at amusing himself, but he still loves company, so any time one of us comes into view from his pen, he jumps on top of his house and bleats for attention.  He’s in for a big treat, when lots of CSA members suddenly show up to visit him!