Cool and Dry means Not Great for Veggies

Despite the drizzly conditions the last few days, the farm has seen very little precipitation in the last 6 weeks. We have only received 3 tenths of an inch since early June. Considering good plant growth requires about an inch of water a week, we are seriously under-watered right now. Every weather system containing precipitation has either just missed the farm, or dissipated before getting to us. We can irrigate the transplants with our drip system, and we do our best to keep moving the sprinkler on the direct seeded garden but nothing compares to a good, steady rain.
The field crop garden has no irrigation at all, and is dependent on rainfall to water the plants there.
Now that the blooms are on the peas, and potato's we really, really need rain in order for the plants to set their fruit.
Add to this the unseasonably cool weather we've had and plant growth is nowhere near what we've seen in the last 8 years. Normally our first CSA share would include Romaine lettuce, but our first heads won't be ready until this coming week, the fourth CSA share drop. We have had Broccoli as early as the second CSA share, this year it looks like it wont be until the fifth share, although there are a few heads starting to form now.
July has been downright cold, cold enough that we have had a few wood fires in the stove to drive the chill out of the house. We have never, ever had a fire in the house in the month's of July or August. Considering this is usually the hottest time of the year, when corn, melons and peppers are thriving, we're becoming concerned that some of those heat loving crops may not be ready before the first frost in fall.

Bees and Beasts

We have had a few new additions to the farmstead in the last few weeks that we haven't had a chance to mention:

A hive of local Bees courtesy of Nathan,
The bees will help pollinate the flowers on the plants in the garden (and produce honey too of course).


And four Hereford/Angus steers.
Grazing our lush pasture in full bloom. A pipe from our spring brings fresh cool water to the steers. Bees and grass fed cattle are pretty maintenance free systems on the farm, only needing a daily checking and (in the case of the cattle) opening a gate to move them to the next paddock of grass. That's important when there is so much work to do watering and weeding in the gardens.
Because we are a small scale organic farm, weeding is mostly done by hand, either with a hoe ,wheel hoe, flame weeder or (mostly) just pulling them up. With 3 acres to weed, there is never enough time in the day.

Food in full swing

The farm is now in its second week of CSA share growing. This week we have the following for our members:

1. Pak Choi
2. Basil/cilantro
3. All lettuce Mesclun Blend
4. Spinach
5. Radishes
6. Green onions
7. Kale
8. Bread
9. Eggs

In order to keep a steady supply of food ready for our members, we continually plant new beds of spinach, lettuce, green onions, chard, beets, carrots, radishes and greens. Here's a newly planted bed of meslcun (centre) and Radishes (left). Every week a few more beds are planted and every week we harvest a few too. It takes about one hour to till and plant a bed and two hours of weeding before harvest time. Harvesting itself can take as little as 20 minutes or as long as 2 hours depending on the crop.

Once the veggies are harvested we take them into our newly built (and still semi-completed) barn to wash, grade, bag and store them. This process used to be the labor bottle neck on our tiny farm, but the new "production line" streamlines the work and makes it ALOT easier on us physically.

Basically the line is two raised work surfaces (one that April is standing at, and the other one behind Nathan covered in freshly washed blue bins) that allow us to keep our backs strait, out of the rain and sun, while we work. At the end of the tables is the door to the home made walk in cooler.
April has just brought a load of spinach in from the field, and places it at the end of the wash table.

Then the harvest bins are filled with spring water and washed, then spun dry in the orange salad spinner. One person washes and grades the spinach, one person fills the spinner basket and spins the spinach dry and one or two people stand at the end of the line and bag the spinach. The bagged spinach then goes into the blue boxes and finally into the cooler, ready for tomorrows CSA drop. We use the same process for greens and mesclun. Almost every thing else is harvested and bunched in the field, then brought up to the barn to be washed, counted and packed into the cooler.
We are always refining the process, but in comparison to previous years, this is a huge improvement and has made producing food for 80 members possible.

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PICK-UP LOCATION

Pick -Up

Due to an unavoidable discrepancy at LU, the drop location has had to change from the Lot 5 administration lot, to Lot R3 (Click Here for a map).
It is off Oliver rd, turn on University Drive North, and the parking lot R3 is on your right.
It is next to the MV building, and close to the MS building.

Bread Ingredients

Also, we had a question regarding the ingredients in the bread made by Both Hands Bread. The bread itself is always dairy free, however an exact list of ingredients could be obtained by calling Derek at: 473-4599.


Just a quick reminder: we had a few questions regarding obtaining your weekly share if you are unable to pick up on Wednesday evenings. Our advice to this is to try your best to find a friend or family member to pick up for you, otherwise we take the leftover items to a local shelter on our way back home. The food will always go to good use!

RECIPIES!

Here is a few Joi Choi recipes....

Crunchy Joi Choi Slaw
2 Tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar

1 tsp dark sesame oil

1/2 tsp sugar

1/2 tsp Dijon Mustard

salt to taste

Very thinly sliced Joi Choi

1 carrot, shredded

1/2 scallion, thinly sliced

Mix all together, serve.

http://www.freshlink.org/JoiChoiRecipe.html


Here is a Kale Recipe...

We have always cooked it as a side for supper as follows:
Bunch of Kale
1-2 tsp olive oil
1 clove garlic
1 shallot (you can use finely chopped regular onion)
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste.

First, sautee the garlic and shallot in olive oil. Then, add the Kale, Sautee just until sweated not until mushy. Add salt and pepper to taste!


If you have a great recipe you'd like to share, just post a comment!

June 28th Update

This last week saw our temperatures shoot up, wayyy up, into the 30 celcius range. The plants, long starved for heat, responded by growing like mad. Here's tomatos,
Broccoliand Eggplants,All tripled in size, with April's little foot thrown in for scale.
We planted another 8 beds of succession crops, here I am holding the seed drill,

We finished building the production "line" and 8x8 walk in cooler. Then we tryed them both out on wednesday and took some early greens to the Country Market.
Our First CSA drop date is for this coming Wednesday, July 1st. It looks like our first share will include ......

1. Green Onions
2. Spinach
3. Greens
4. Radishes
5. Joi Choi
6. Kale
7. Bread
8. Eggs

After all the work of the last months, its at last time to Harvest!!!

June 20th Update

Last night we finished putting in the last of the 6079 transplants! Our sore backs are glad that job is over. Now the entire mulched acre is planted. It features: 2 types of broccoli, 2 types of melons, 2 types of eggplant, Kohlrabi, 4 kinds of tomatoes, pie pumpkins, 3 types of peppers, Joi-Choi, Cauliflower, celery, kale, celeriac, 2 kinds of cabbage, Brussels sprouts, basil, cilantro, rosemary, parsley, 2 kinds of cucumber, 4 types of wintrer squash, 4 types of summer squash and yellow onions. All told this job took 180 person hours to complete!
The warmth of the last week has really helped the direct seeded garden to thrive, we now have 36 beds planted, with more going in every day! Also of note our daily work hours has started to shift down a few notches, from 14- 16 hours a day in May and early June, to 12 hours two weeks ago, this last week we were down to 10 hour days!
This last pic is thanks to our youngest. The first toad of the year was photograped "in action" and released after. Toads are a welcome sign of summer, we usually have dozens living in the garden over the season. They are an excellent organic solution to insect pests, and a good indicator of biodiversity on the farm. With the forcast for more warmth this week, its safe to say we have at last arrived in early summer.