Fully Saturated and Then Some

Watermelon sneak peak, coming to you in early August. Do they appreciate all this rain, these sweet oblong heavy fruits? In our past experience the answer is no, at least the round variety we used to grow. Pretty sure the ancestor of the modern watermelon is a plant from arid regions of north Africa.

It could probably be worse than this. We're lucky our fields reside on relatively high ground on the upper reaches of minor tributaries and aren't part of any riparian flood plains. The diversions and waterways we've established over the years help deflect the worst of the heavy rainfall. Nothing prevents the significant amount of water from falling on the fields except for our tunnels that are currently protecting tomatoes. Since Friday morning we've received 5 inches of rainfall, this is by mid-morning Sunday, with another couple of inches forecast for today. Having farmed here for 15 years now and dealing with all types of weather extremes, I don't panic hopefully as much as I used to, knowing this will pass and damage should be minimal. Still, it does stir up some unpleasant feelings knowing precious soil and nutrients are being washed out to sea. Sorry ocean critters.

What's next? The farm season marches on. We're still seeding each week, now well into our fall crops. We continue to transplant each week as well. Last week we transplanted 7,500 cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, brussels sprout, lettuce, and herb plants over 5,000 bed feet. We're supposed to transplant fennel, beets, kale, rutabaga, and chard this coming week but that may be delayed. Tomatoes receive their weekly maintenance and are entering what will hopefully be a time of good yields. Thrice-weekly zucchini and cucumber harvests continue to take up a lot of our non-distribution day time. Hoeing and weeding take up a minimal amount of time right now but will soon increase with the amount of late summer and fall crops that are going into bare ground. Aisle maintenance is also peaking with warm season grasses and annual weeds trying to establish a foothold there. At least they do provide protection and prevent soil erosion!

On a good note, we did finish harvesting a record amount of carrots this past week. Yield and quality are probably the best we've had. Incredibly, the total weight harvested by staff and members is approximately 6,500lbs, or 3.25 tons! I didn't do much of the harvesting myself, only wielding the tractor and tool that loosened the beds, but I did get to lift each 60-70lb bin and put it in the cooler. Much better than a gym membership I swear.

Enjoy the rain day/weekend/week!