Farm Happenings

Weather: We had weird weather over the last week. Several rainy days yield a total of about one inch of much-needed rain, but made working in the fields just muddy and cold enough to be worth complaining about. Still, weather breaks on Monday and Tuesday afternoons let us get some in some seeding and one easy harvest.

What We Did: Almost everybody worked together to remove the row cover that has been keeping bugs off of the melon crop. Now that the melon crop has begun to flower, we have to allow bees to have access; it also means letting the nasty little cucumber beetles in. Cucumber beetles carry nasty plant diseases that can devastate young melon plantings, so we use an air-, light-, and water-permeable cover to keep the little buggers off. The same crew hand-hoed all of the rows of black plastic on the farm; we have pretty good weed control, but needed to clean up the rest, and it was no small task. We did a bunch of additional handweeding and hoeing around the farm, as well. Zane and Chris did a one-two punch cultivating the winter squash. Chris seeded the fall storage beets and Big Ben stayed late on Monday to roll the beds flat, ensuring good seed-to-soil contact. Big Ben and Little Ben worked together to bring further order to the shop, which seems to be an ongoing nightmare. Bekah and Sanna pruned and clipped the greenhouse tomatoes. Sanna and Ryan weeded the rosemary pots. Zach and Ryan hoed another crop of weeds in the greenhouse. Sarah picked the very first of the cucumbers from the greenhous.

Comings and Goings: We had a visit on Friday from two long-time CSA members who were camping in the area, and it was fun to show them around. Chris’ mom came to visit on Monday night from Seattle, bringing son Oliver back home from a visit. She’ll stay through Sunday and help with the bookkeeping (she’s a world-class bookkeeper) and budgeting through the end of the year.