7.1.21 Farm Happenings

Winter Share Information

Well, we finally got some rain. Careful what you ask for, right?  On Tuesday afternoon, a huge thunderstorm rolled through and let loose right over top of us.  In 30 minutes, we got 2.5 inches of rain - that's about 2 and a half weeks worth of precipitation all in half an hour!  Some neighbors reported hail damage, but we dodged that bullet.  Other neighbors, less than 5 miles away, got NO rain at all.  That's the nature of these intense, scattered storms I suppose.  Rivers of water were running everywhere, but thankfully an hour after it stopped raining, the landscape looked "normal" again.  A quick scout of the fields showed that we didn't have any bad washouts, however our fall beets and carrots did get buried in places.  We'll be seeding another round of those next week to make sure we have plenty for winter!  Never a dull moment.  These big storms help reinforce our commitment to using cover crops to build soil organic matter to hold onto the water (and hold on to our soil) when the rain comes down instead of letting it run off of the fields.

Managing a farm is all about materials handling.  Whether it's moving seeds precisely and accurately with a seeder; moving soil and/or weeds with a big tractor implement like a disc or plow, or a smaller implement like a cultivator; or moving harvested produce around in bins or buckets, as farmers we spend most of our day moving things around. 

In addition to seeds, dirt, and produce, water is the other big thing that moves around on a farm.  So far, we've been relying on natural rainfall to water our field crops, and using the hose to water inside our hoophouses. Sometimes water moves on it's own, when a storm like this one comes through, but that's pretty unpredictable.  Being able to move water onto a crop when you need to is pretty handy.  Just this week, we got a final quote on a pump system for our farm pond that would allow us to irrigate field crops with pond water.  It will be a big expense ($12-13K) but a HUGE improvement over waiting for Mother Nature to water our crops when we plant them.   I am getting the FSA loan paperwork completed and hopefully in the coming weeks we will have a better, more reliable water handling system here on the farm.

Speaking of materials handling, the loader is coming in mighty handy for bringing the cuke harvest from the hoophouse to get washed and packed!  Hopefully from here on out, if you want cukes in your CSA veggie boxes, we'll be able to supply all you need.  We also will begin offering 5# bulk bags of cukes for anyone interested in making refrigerator pickles (or if you really like eating fresh cucumbers and want to buy them in bulk!)  They are the same cukes as we usually offer for your CSA - ie not "officially" pickling cukes - but they make a tasty refrigerator pickle nonetheless.  There are many recipes online, so search away and find one that looks good to you if  you don't have a favorite already.  For reference, 5# looks like this: 

The bounty of summer is here!  We began harvesting cherry tomatoes last week, and there will be a limited amount of those again for the next week or so until production picks up enough to get you all the cherry tomatoes you would like.  The heat wave coming this weekend will do wonders to hasten the tomato ripening, but any tomatoes before the 4th of July are something to celebrate! 

The other big task after a rainfall event is getting back to cultivating all of our field crops. Cultivation after a rain helps the crops in two ways.  Number one: you can see that soil beginning to crack as it dries out in the picture above.  Left alone, those cracks will let air down into the soil and wick precious moisture out of the ground.  Cultivating the top inch of soil helps close those cracks up and creates a "dust mulch" on the surface of the ground, preventing capillary action from wicking that moisture out.  In a weird kind of way, cultivation acts like irrigation by preserving soil moisture.  Number two: cultivation a day or two after a rainfall event kills the little weeds that have germinated while they are still small and easy to take care of.  Farmer Ryan (shown on the Farmall Cub above) and I spent the day on Thursday cultivating all of our winter squash and sweet corn for the third time since we planted them. Those crops are coming along nicely now.

While weeding the basil in one of our hoophouses this week, we found yet another great (and sort of rare) beneficial predator insect - the mantis wasp.  Continuing to find these predator bug species out and about here at the farm is pretty special.  It means we're doing a good job at encouraging natural systems to exist within our agricultural production, which is basically the entire premise of good, organic farming!  Here's a picture of the mantis wasp, which gets it's name from it's long, preying-mantis-like appendages.  If I was a pest insect, I'd hate to run into that fella! 

You can see a video of it crawling around and extending those amazing front pincers on our Great Oak Farm facebook page, or by following this link:  https://www.facebook.com/GreatOakFarm/videos/198284175545312 

Well, that's it from the farm this week.  Wishing you a safe and relaxing 4th of July weekend!  It looks like it's going to be a good weekend to find a lake to play in.

In community,

Farmer Chris

Great Oak Farm