May 26, 2025
Less Rain, More Sun Please
by Farmer Derek

An interesting weather pattern continues: half the week provides ample sunshine and enough wind to let us work in the fields briefly; the other half is very cool and very rainy. It appears we'll endure a third straight week of this. While we were in need of some rainfall, six inches in two weeks is more than plenty, and now we would appreciate it if the soil dried out a bit more between rain events. So far in the month of May, 7 inches of rain has fallen, already 2 inches more than our 17-year average.

But fear not, the crops endure. Our typical spring harvested crops love this weather. The freshly planted summer, heat-loving crops like tomatoes, peppers, zucchini, cucumbers, tomatillos, and winter squash would most definitely appreciate warmer weather. They're surviving but not growing much. Eventually consistently warmer temperatures will arrive and they'll thrive.

While we're mostly staying on schedule with planting, tractor work, weeding, and cultivating, an upcoming big task is hilling/cultivating the 10,000 feet of potatoes and that would be most effective if the soil was dry and stayed dry for a couple of days after. We also have a few thousand feet of beds we need to ready for sweet potatoes. An area that was covered with a robust stand of winter rye plus moist soil will make this task slightly more difficult. The beds have been preliminarily shaped so they should at least dry out quicker. The sweet potato 'slips' aren't arriving until the first week of June so we have a bit more time to finalize the space.

Happy planting amid the return of warm sunshine!