It's been pretty cool this week. It's lovely for working in and the lettuce really likes it. We planted a lot of lettuce, arugula and radishes in the last few weeks and they are all coming up nicely. If you are wondering about your greens mix lately, it contains the usual lettuce and chard with the addition of pea tendrils and arugula thinnings. Pea tendrils look a little like clover with arms (the tendril part that helps them climb) and the arugula thinnings have a lovely peppery smell and taste but are tiny and a little bug eaten. Don't worry the bugs aren't still on them and I read an article that said the bug eaten leaves are healthier given that they need to increase their defenses. I don't know how factual that is but it seems plausible. Perfection is only for the chemical gardener. As an organic gardener I've decided to put up with a few bugs. I know the predators will be along soon. In fact I've seen a few in the last few weeks. Spiders, lady bugs, praying mantis, toads and even a snake. I also saw the wrinkled skin of a caterpillar which I puzzled over until I found a description of what some parasitic wasps do to their prey. They lay their eggs in a caterpillar and then when the eggs hatch they eat the thing from the inside and leave a caterpillar husk in their wake. Brutal but effective. I've found a few squashes and pumpkins on the vines and the zucchini are finally coming along. Last week most of you received an eggplant and a large zucchini. Those were courtesy of Arden (of Lake Land Meats) and her daughter Elizabeth. The teeny, weeny zucchini are from our plants. The tomatoes are ripening nicely too. There are loads still on the vines and you'll receive more and more tomatoes in the baskets. You may notice that they aren't all completely ripe. There are a few reasons for this and they are all fellow tomato lovers. Everyone loves a ripe tomato including pests. The mice, slugs and two freedom-loving chickens have all shown me how much they love the tomatoes so I pick them just as they are turning. They will continue to turn red and I think they are just as delicious and sweet. You can leave them in a sunny window or just on the counter until they turn. Some of Wednesdays baskets received a small cabbage this week. Just a little one because that's all there is. I planted loads of cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower and brussels sprouts in the spring but they haven't fared well. They like consistency (as most of us do) and it was just so hard this year. They were stressed after I planted them because it was dry in May (and we were still setting up our irrigation) and then stressed again because it got so wet in June. They never really recovered and have been ravaged by bugs. You may still see some sprouts and some broccoli florets but chances are you won't get any of these crops in your basket unless the new ones that I planted in July start to make something of themselves. This week will be the last of the onions and garlic. They've had a really good run. We are already planning next year's garlic crop. I'm planting enough to give everyone at least one bulb every week from mid-July until the end. When I planted last fall this CSA was still a bit of a pipe dream. A lot of the onions I planted drowned in the June rains and went all mushy. They will be replaced with leeks for as long as possible. My dad and I are working on getting an agreement together with a land owner this week. Thanks to everyone who sent me leads on land. I've learned so much this year and one of the things I've learned is to get things in writing. I did know that I should but I squelched that and just trusted that everything would be ok. Oh well, here we are now working on getting a place to plant 2000 garlic cloves.
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This is the tenth week of harvest which means that we are just over half way through this year's CSA. Still slim pickings this week but the zucchini is flowering like crazy and I've seen the bees doing their best to pollinate them. The boxes will hopefully be jam packed soon! The beans and tomatoes are producing more every week. I have more lettuce, radish, carrots, beets, broccoli, cauliflower and turnips planted and they are growing as fast as they can. I wonder what kind of music they like. Maybe they would move a little faster with a good beat going. Though we haven't been as successful as I wanted to be I am still quite proud of the work that we've done and the garden that we have created. Permaculture I recently attended the third weekend of a Permaculture Design Course that I'm taking. It was so hard to leave and spend 3 days away from the farm and my family. Usually when I do workshops away from home I'm quite relieved to get away for a little while. Not this weekend. I love being at the farm and it is a lot of work and takes up a lot of my time so I don't get to spend as much time as I'd like with my sons and husband. I thought the course would be a good idea to help me through my first year. In retrospect, not such a good idea. The appeal for this weekend was a field trip to another CSA farm. It was interesting and I took loads of pictures. They are a whole lot bigger than I ever want to be but it was interesting. They use draft horses to cultivate their fields and they are experimenting with some no-till fields. I can't wait to find out how that goes. One of the great things about this course is that it's helping me to get a better picture of what I'd like to plant. Permaculture is a wholistic approach to designing gardens, communities and homesteads. The approach takes into account the human's needs while also making sure that it's ecologically sustainable, efficient and diverse. I've been studying it for a few years now but this course is really giving me some key points to focus on when I'm designing my market garden as well as my home garden. Looks like we need to start again... So my dad and I found out last week that we won't be able to continue our project at our current location next year. The reasons are various and unfortunate. Maybe I'll tell you about it sometime. Right now I'm very disappointed but I'm staying optimistic and looking for somewhere else to establish ourselves. We've learned so much this year and though it will be hard to start again we agree that it won't be from scratch because of all the knowledge we've gained in our first year. Stay tuned as we continue this adventure. Thanks so much for your support! Jackie and Jake Ps. If you know of anyone with 1/2 acre or more of land that they would be willing to rent out for money or a land tax break. We will have a farm business number next year which will allow the land owner to claim farm status. |
JackieI'm a garden farmer, herbal enthusiast, motherwifesisterfriend and Archives
April 2022
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