Greetings to all of you, your family and friends. Hope this day finds you in good health and spirits.
Our farm news is all about the weather...what's new? it seems we have entered into a rare August monsoon period. The trend of global weather extremes are evident once again. Farming is so connected to weather patterns. Has become very challenging to figure out what a crop will do next. Can certainly understand why more acres are being put under plastic greenhouses. Course when you loose the plastic off a greenhouse that just adds to the complications of farming. The plastic was ripped off the greenhouse we use for season extension for the tomatoes, peppers and greens in one of the storms this summer. We acquired about 5 plus inches of rain in the last week. The usual in the past is one inch a week. We received the missing rain from earlier this summer all in one week. The city of Barron, which is about 5 miles away, got 7 inches in about 3 hours on Wednesday afternoon. Such fun!
The photo this week is to show you how we grow the head lettuce most of you select. They grow in a protected environment inside Greenhouse 3. By using a greenhouse we don't have lettuce with large holes poked in them from huge rain drops. Much cleaner. No mud splashing them. It is a bit complicated though. We start by seeding each one in a 48 cell tray. Keep it watered. After about one month each lettuce is transplanted into the trays you see attached to the pallets. It grows from 2 weeks to one month before harvest. After harvest the soil is removed from the tray and replaced with fresh organic potting soil. The spent soil is composted and returned to the field. A circle of life.
As always have a great week and come to visit us.
