Welcome to the LAST spring CSA delivery, friends. What a spring it has been. I have good news to share - our first outdoor transplants hit the dirt this week, along with our first seeding of carrots.
We are STILL waiting on seals for our hydraulic steering pump on our big field tractor. Thankfully, the Griggs Cattle Company, a fellow Bayfield Foods Coop farm just a few miles down the road, graciously loaned us their tractor to get some transplanting done for a few days early this week.
When supply chains break down and are not reliable, it is mighty comforting to know we can count on our neighbors for help when we need a hand. So much gratitude. The first rounds of onions, broccoli, cauliflower, and summer cabbages have been enjoying this rainy weather the last few days. .JPG)
Here we are getting started on onions. So. Many. Onions. We've got about 10 hours left of transplanting the rest of the onions as soon as we get favorable weather and a working tractor again. I am hopeful that next week we'll get them all transplanted.
The first seeding of carrots went into a hoophouse that lost the plastic in a storm last year. Smaller hoophouses like this one (only about 12'wide) used to be "the way" for hoophouse production way back when, but the design has been largely abandoned in favor of larger tunnels these days. Small tunnels tend to heat up during the day and cool down really quickly at night due to smaller air volume than the big tunnels that growers use now (30' wide x 100 feet long or larger). This makes it easy to cook the plants (and farmers working) inside if you are not careful with keeping the end walls open and/or shade cloth over the top..JPG)
Since the small tunnel would get SO hot during the day that it's difficult to regulate temps well enough by venting from the ends only, we just held off on replacing the plastic on this one. Plus, small tunnels don't have as much head room along the sides for taller crops like cukes and tomatoes, making them less practical. Instead of covering it, we're using this small hoop space like a large garden bed, worked with hand tools since the soil inside has become so nice over the years.
We broadfork to loosen the soil, remove any weeds - especially quack grass - by hand, hoe to break up the clumps, rake it smooth, and then seed our carrots. This gives us nice clean soil that is loose which helps the carrots stretch out and grow long. Last fall, we covered this ground with landscape fabric to smother weeds, and it worked beautifully. The weed seeds try to grow, but die out shortly after sprouting since they cannot access light to continue to grow. Organic pre-plant weed control for the win.
Later this summer, we'll use the same broadforks to loosen the soil once more so that we can pull the carrots easily from the ground. Hopefully next week we have a working field tractor once again to seed our first of two plantings of field carrots. Each one will be twelve 300' long beds of carrots. This little hoop is 12' x 100' - it'll tide us over on the first harvest of carrots, but to get through the season we'll need a LOT more! Who's excited for fresh carrots?.JPG)
Meanwhile, the baby cucumbers in the OTHER tunnel that lost plastic in the storm last week have been row covered at night to keep them warm during the cool evenings. We had some nighttime lows in the 30's this week, but thankfully the row cover protected the plants from any cold damage. Looking at the forecast this weekend, we're supposed to get more nights in the 30's, and I have been anxious to get this plastic replaced.
Since the order was placed, I tracked the delivery to see when it would arrive. The pallet made it to Duluth terminal on the 16th, so I thought for sure we'd have it delivered here the next day. The estimated delivery day, May 17th, came and went with no plastic delivery. Same thing on the 18th - no plastic delivery, but I could see that the pallet was sitting in the warehouse in Duluth still. So Thursday morning I called the freight company to see what was going on.
Apparently they didn't know when they would have a driver to send a truck out this way - maybe Friday, maybe sometime next week. I explained how I was really counting on this plastic to protect a tunnel full of cukes from the cold over the weekend, and asked if I could drive to the warehouse and pick it up there myself. The dispatcher had not gotten that kind of question before, but after consulting with the manager agreed to load me up as soon as I could make it over. Needless to say, I hopped in the truck and 4 hours later was back at the farm with the new roll of plastic..JPG)
At least my little truck fit the color scheme of the warehouse well.
Hopefully by the time you read this newsletter, we will have taken off the old plastic and attached the new sheet on top - good news for tender cukes and hungry eaters as well. We'll have to see how the weather holds - pulling those big sheets of plastic can be difficult on a windy day, and so far the wind is pretty rough. At any rate, soon the plants will be kept warm and protected from the weather, and I expect we'll be picking our first cukes sometime around the middle of June.
UPDATE: We got it! Despite the rain and wind Friday morning - far from ideal conditions - we managed to get the new plastic pulled nice and snug. Whew, what a load off of the mental shoulders! .JPG)
And more good news - the first planting of hoophouse peas has started to form flower buds, so we're about 3 weeks from snap pea harvest as well. I am really looking forward to those peas, they are one of the best early summer treats around.
.JPG)
And even MORE good news: we outsmarted the critters trying to snack on our winter squash seeds! Moving the plants to the squash storage room and turning up the heat in there worked brilliantly. Once the seeds had begun to sprout, we moved the flats back to the warm greenhouse to continue to emerge. They are still pretty vulnerable to rodents at this stage (they are like sprouts you might add on a sandwich, just larger), so to keep the critters at bay I cranked up the country station on the radio in there and brought out some bright lamps to illuminate the greenhouse at night.
If any neighbors drove by between dusk and dawn, I am sure they wondered what kind of party was going on in there. The noise and light worked great - check out these nice looking flats of winter squash.
That's it from the farm this week. Truly, thank you for making us YOUR farmers this spring! We're looking forward to a great summer season ahead.
In community,
Farmer Chris
Great Oak Farm
