Seasonal Transitions
It's funny, I have had conversations with several folks lately and I am realizing most people do not obsess about the weather like I do. They hop out of bed and head to work without even looking at what the weather will bring. Me? I am constantly checking: how windy will it be, what's the predicted high/low temps, will we get any rain or a crazy thunderstorm... It effects so many aspects of growing veg for you, it's almost as if what I do does not matter. Ok yes it does. But sometimes it feels totally out of my control. Currently my obsession is if we are going to get rain. We did, about 0.4" which is not much but it is something. We do have drip irrigation (water slowly drips out of emitters which are embedded in that black tube you see). It's super efficient, you can even water on a hot sunny day and will hardly have any loss to evaporation (although we tend to water in the am and pm to get the best results). The downside is that it is always in the way. I am constantly breaking it with the truck/tractor/hoe. We also have very little water to use, so we can only run a few beds at a time for a short duration. It would take 2 weeks to water the entire farm properly. My love hate relationship with drip irrigation will continue until I die. You cannot say I am not committed : )
My camera did not quite capture it, but the above photo was snapped early in the morning and the drips from the irrigation were sparkling like diamonds in the sunrise. Little gifts dropping into the soil for the plants. And of course Simon giving love to all.
We just finished our big seasonal transition in the hoop house. We cleaned out all of the winter spinach and most of the lettuce and transplanted tomatoes in their place. Soon the beets you see in the photo will be harvested as a part of your share (they were seeded in here in March) and the house will be lush with tomatoes. The hoop house is a ton of work, lots of winter maintenance and summer fussing, but it adds so much diversity to the CSA. It allows for the candy like winter spinach, luscious early spring greens, early season beets and herbs and healthier tomato plants. Feel free to walk up and see what's happening in there, or on the entire farm, it's constantly changing! (Just be sure to stay on the edges and not walk through the gardens : )
This Week's Bounty: lettuce, herbs, tat soi, pac choi, spring onions, arugula, rasish? rhubarb, carrots, parsnips
The Farmer's Table (A sample of our dinners from the farm's bounty)
*grilled NY sirloin and asparagus
*loads of crunchy salads with pickeled carrots
*Philly cheesesteaks (with our minute steaks) and sauteed onions and frozen peppers
*roasted veg -- parsnip, carrot and the last of the spuds
