Quick report from today’s visit. We’ve had a few days of rain, but I needed to drive up towards the farm to pick up our new scale (!), so I went up to check on the fields. Most of the crops look pretty good.
- The lettuce is growing well under cover and making big heads. They’ll definitely be ready for the farmer’s market in a few weeks. I’ve got more seedlings growing under lights that should get planted this weekend.
- The snow peas are climbing (we added sisal twine to the nylon twine on the posts, which helped. The tendrils tend to slip off the twine a bit.) The rabbits seem to have slowed their damage a bit, but I still don’t think we’ll make our promised delivery of 40 pints to the CSA, but we’ll have some. They are blooming already, which is very good news.
- The tomatoes and peppers mostly look pretty good. They’re well-watered now and anxious for some warm, sunny weather.
- The beets look pretty horrible. I think I planted the seeds too deep. Germination has been extremely, which is going to make it very hard for us to make our CSA delivery in July. I’m pretty depressed about this. I usually have such good luck with beets.
- The kale is doing well. I don’t know if we’ll have enough to make our first World PEAS order (we were supposed to deliver 20 bunches to them next Tuesday), but we’ll catch up soon, and I’ve got a lot of seedlings under lights right now.
- The chard looks VERY good. The seedlings we purchased are full size now and ready for harvest. I thinned and weeded, by hand, the chard that I direct seeded and they’re getting big fast.
- The potatoes are more than a foot high and in need of hilling as soon as I can manage it (need some dry weather). We’ve got potato beetles, but I’ve been picking them off by hand so far. I’m doing my best to stay ahead of them.
- The cucumbers, zucchini, and beans have all sprouted.
- The onions are under attack from onion root maggots, which is a problem. I’ve tried adding some beneficial nematodes. I hope we just lose a small percentage of the onions and not the whole crop.
Lots of moving parts, but lots of good news amongst the challenges and disappointments.