mid-summer field update

Now is a great time to take a deep breath and remember the very excellent things about summer in the north country. It’s tempting to get trapped in the hamster wheel of what we want (more sun, less rain, waking up bright eyed and full of energy). At the end of the day though, we are in good shape. Yes, the weeds are fantastically adapted and growing profusely, but overall the crops – and our spirits – are in good shape too.

Probably the most challenging thing to get adjusted to, is our different structure this season with the CSA shares. In past seasons, by now we would be into our 5th week of veggie distribution. Designing harvest lists over the weekend, adjusting as needed during Tues/Fri harvest and striving to assemble a balanced, bountiful (yet not overwhelming) share for the week. This season, since we are not offering the Fresh, Full season or Homesteader share, there is on;y the You Pick share happening until September. For us, it is frankly somewhat a relief. The footprint of annual crops is more manageable, we are cover cropping extensively, we have (nearly) sufficient labor and are not fretting about the quantities available on harvest days. Yet with that relief comes tinges of guilt. We have always been a CSA farm, shouldn’t we take those challenges in stride and charge forth passionately? Shouldn’t we be producing the most food possible to impact shareholder diets? Are we are offering something that is significantly meaningful and of value? There are no right answers to those questions, but we have had a higher summer quality of life compared to past seasons. There’s less field tunnel vision and more brain space and time for non-farm stuff. The You Pick is running smoothly -from our perspective anyhow –  and we are well-positioned for the Fall share.

happy onions

Now to the details on the crops. The column of “thumbs up,” is long. Many crops are progressing really well. This includes the allium family: onions, leeks, garlic and shallots. We haven’t detected any disease or pest issues and they are all sizing up nicely. You’ll see emails in the next few weeks inviting you to be part of harvesting some of these crops to cure for fall distribution.

winter squash hills

Also good with the hardy greens: kale, rainbow chard and collards. The fall carrot crop has germinated well and we’ve recently seeded the beets. While the tomatoes plants are growing well at this point, their success is dependent on an August that is significantly warmer than these past weeks. We have detected no early or late blight in the field, but continued soggy weather could prove disastrous. The winter squash/pie pumpkins are vining out well. There is some squash developing, but it’s too early to tell as to quality or quantity of yield. It’s also too early to forecast the fall broccoli harvest, but we did plant gobs of it! Also A+ are the green beans and part of the edamame planting.

beans lookin’ good

At this point, the crops struggling most is eggplant. The plants are not vigorous, both because they require more heat than we have been getting and their leaves are being eaten by Colorado potato beetles, who found the crop early. We’ve been working to curb their destruction manually (knocking beetles off into receptacle), but the prospects aren’t looking great for harvesting abundant fruit. We do not choose pesticides as a management option since they target all insects indiscriminately (including organically approved options). While the potatoes were also descended upon by the beetles, we’ve kept those populations in check and the plants should still produce well. It’s somewhat hard to tell about the peppers. The plants are setting fruit, but as with many crops, much is dependent on the weather.

This update is clearly not exhaustive and there are more tasty crops out there that we look forward to sharing.