Category Archives: rain

In the Share: Week 20

lettuce, rain

LETTUCE F/P As soon as I said that the lettuce didn’t need another gully washer, guess what happened?!  This photo is after the four inches of rain that fell Tuesday night into Wednesday last week.  More water encouraged the already bolting lettuce all the more.  So far we are keeping up with harvesting the ones that are most threatening to bolt while they are still nice, but expect some emergent stalks in your heads.

TOMATOES F/P  Today sure felt like tomato season with a heat index at 100 deg. F.  What a weird weather year.  The heat and humidity has been unreal and our organic tomato patch has suffered as a result.

GARLIC F/P  From storage.  We are finishing up the artichoke variety and are moving on to the silverskin.

SWEET PEPPERS F  There are lots of peppers on the plants, but fewer are ripening so only the full shares get them this week.  Partial shares get them next week.

POTATOES OR ONIONS F  The last of both for the year.

EGGPLANT OR OKRA P  Both are doing well right now. You’ve got to savor the summer while it lasts!

ROMA BEANS F  It has been a very weird year with the bean crop.  All season long we have not been able to get our bean seed to sprout.  Finally we got half of a planting to come up.  After much cajoling we have a bit of a bean harvest.  See Tom’s blog for more info. on this Italian-type bean.

CUCUMBERS F  Last hurrah of these for the year.

GREENS CHOICE P  Kale, chard or gailan

HERBS OR HOT PEPPERS F/P  Numex (green or red), Hot wax (yellow), and jalapenos (dark green or red) or cutting celery.

NEXT WEEK:  lettuce, greens, peppers, eggplant, okra, sweet potatoes

FARM REPORT:

At least this time, the rain actually fit in our rain gauge.  Large rain events have become common enough that we should probably buy a bigger rain gauge.  No joke!   See Tom’s post for a soggy photo.  Crops like the radishes, turnips, and arugula that were already stressed from the last rain are worse now.  After each rain event we have re-planted in the hopes of things turning in our favor, so far no such luck.

At the moment, the shares are full thanks to the summer crops that will be done soon and storage crops that we have pretty much gone through.  Expect lighter shares for the last few weeks of the season.  On a bright note, the sweet potato harvest has begun and it looks fairly respectable.  They will start appearing in the shares next week and for most of the rest of the season.

In the Share: Week 17

lettuce, peppers, rain, rainbow, row cover

SWEET PEPPERS F/P

CARROTS F/P baby orange ones from the summer harvest.

TOMATOES F/P

SUMMER SQUASH F yellow squash or zucchini

YELLOW ONIONS F/P

EGGPLANT OR OKRA F

CUCUMBERS F/P

HERBS F/P  See Tom’s post for more on our interesting assortment of herbs this week that includes basil, fresh fennel seeds and garlic chive flowers.

NEXT WEEK:  peppers, tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, potatoes and garlic.

FARM REPORT:
The farm received nine inches of rain within a span of three days. Most of it fell Friday night when all of the creeks rose and lots of folks found water in their basements.  It was what some folks around here call a real gully washer.  We’ve done the good work of sowing the farm’s gullies down in permanent sod, so instead the soil washed right over our newly-planted lettuce beds.  Once it dries out enough to attempt it, we’ll need a shovel to unearth what lies beneath.

Most of the crops weren’t buried like the lettuce, and not even most of the lettuce got the full treatment, but there’s other damage that is hard to see at first.  When we get a big rain event like we had this week, water pools below ground long after the surface water has receded.  Plant roots swimming in muck leads to root rot.  Root rot leads to leaves wilting and yellowing.  Not every crop is in this situation, but many are.  If we get the weather that is forecasted for the next week, dry and sunny, we should see some recovery.  If instead we get another slew of rain then it might be time to start wishing on rainbows.

In the Share: Week 7

basil, rain, shade structure, tomato plants

BASIL F/P  The heat has made for some nice basil bunches to celebrate the arrival of summer.

WALLA WALLA ONIONS F/P  The first week of many with these sweet onions.

NEW POTATOES F/P  The potatoes are surviving the heat only so well.  It is time to save the many nice ones before they cook in the ground!  New potatoes should be stored like other fresh roots in the refrigerator as their skins have not developed fully.

CARROTS F/P  The first of these are still young and very tender with tops.

BEETS OR TURNIPS F  Your choice of roots with no tops.

GAILAN OR CHARD F  Here’s just tops.  Which reminds me of the children’s story “Tops and Bottoms” where the crafty Hare tricks the lazy Bear due to his lack of knowledge about vegetable anatomy.

NAPA CABBAGE F/P  Check Tom’s blog for some hints on making kimchi

NEXT WEEK:  garlic, squash, cabbage, lettuce, carrots, and perhaps tomatoes.

FARM REPORT:
The soil was dry and cracked.  We were irrigating the fields, yet the plants were withering under the scorching heat and it wasn’t even Summer yet.  Then, on the first day of Summer a beautiful thing happened: a thunderstorm came out of the north and soaked the fields.

By the next morning we had three inches of water in the rain gauge and the cracks were gone.  The rain couldn’t have come at a better time.  We were already working on mulching the summer crops and now we can hold on to the moisture under a thick layer of hay.  The tomato patch is coming along and holds many green fruits.
Mulching is just so much fun when the temperatures reach 98 degrees and the humidity is similarly high.  Every dusty piece of dried plant matter sticks to your sweaty skin which the sweat bees are busily biting.  It is one of those dirty jobs on the farm that have an enormous benefit once you get through it.  And we are almost done, maybe one or two more sweaty afternoons.
When we have had our fill of mulching, we cool down in the shade and seed crops for the fall.  The shade structure is full of cabbages, broccoli and cauliflower so far.  The shade keeps the flats cool to provide a better temperature for the seeds to germinate.  Even seeds don’t want to be out in this heat.

In the Share – Week 7

cabbage, hail, potatoes, rain, sweet potatoes

NEW POTATOES F/P  They are tender and young and should be consumed promptly.  Refrigerate to keep them longer.

SUMMER SQUASH F  Just one for each share, mostly zucchini with some Lebanese (light green) and a very few yellow squash.

LETTUCE F/P  May be it for lettuce for awhile.  It has some hail damage yet again.

GREEN RED ONIONS  F/P  They are beginning to make bulbs but still have their green tops.

CHARD OR KALE F  Our hardy greens are growing some nice leaves.
 
CARROTS F/P  The first carrots, small and tender with tops.  To keep them longer, remove the tops.

CABBAGE F  They got knocked around by the hailstorm, but they are still tasty.  See below for more on the Spring 2015 cabbage crop.
 
NEXT WEEK:  Carrots, beets, squash and garlic. 

FARM REPORT:
A beautiful two days of sunshine and heat made us hope that the dreary weather was in retreat.  The rain thought differently and on Sunday we got another 3.6 inches and some more hail.

 
rainfall totals with the farm the star.

This dramatically wet season is taking it’s toll.  A good example would be our Spring cabbage patch.  This winter we decided to grow more cabbage for our fledgling business in kraut and kimchi-making:  a thousand in addition to the several hundred that we grow every Spring for the CSA.  In April and early May they couldn’t have looked better, but the last month of their life was very soggy.  Here’s a psychedelic view of our “supposed to be green” cabbages.

None of these were harvestable, but on the higher ground the plants were green and we got about half of what we planted.  Lucky for us, in a way, we planted way more cabbages than we could have possibly dealt with and so despite the loss, the farm is still flush with cabbage.  I know you all are longing for the sexy vegetables of Summer, but until we get some sunshine and drier weather, cabbage it is.

 Most of our crops do not look like those scary pink cabbages, but they face serious challenges of anaerobic soil – no air equals suffocation of the plants’ roots, lack of sunlight, and competition from weeds.  When it is too wet to use the tractor or even hoes to control weeds, we are left with pulling them by hand.  With all the other work to do on the farm, there just plain isn’t time to get them all. 

sweet potato hills on the highest ground on the farm.

While I could grouse about the weather all day long, I must also mention that we have been cheered by the words of support and encouragement we have received from many of you. 

CSA members removing the pea fences.

Thank you for joining us on this rollercoaster of local eating.  We hope to come out the other end of the season with new strategies for adapting to extreme weather and to the changing climate.

In the Share – Week 5

hail, peas, rain
hail-pummeled peas

PEAS F/P  Beaten by hail and flooded, the pea harvest is pretty dismal. 

NAPA CABBAGE F/P  aka Chinese cabbage.  Let the fermenting begin!

BROCCOLI F/P  Another week of these tasty guys.

KOHLRABI F  The rain has made them especially juicy.

BEETS OR TURNIPS F/P  We will have more of both next week. 

GAI  LAN OR BROCCOLI SIDESHOOTS F

PARSLEY OR GARLIC SCAPES F

NEXT WEEK:  Lettuce, beets or turnips, kohlrabi, and cabbage.

FARM REPORT:
Last Thursday morning I decided to visit my brother Shawn and his family who live in Kearney.  It was raining so it seemed like a good time to get off of the farm and run some errands.  While I was gone we had a doozie of a hailstorm and a massive amount of rain.  For ten minutes Tom watched as the farm was pelted with balls of ice of varying sizes. 

So much rain fell in so short a period of time that I had to re-route around two impassable roadways to reach the farm.  When it finally stopped raining Friday morning 10.85 inches of rain had fallen in 48 hours.  Add that to the rain that has been non-stop for the last month and we have had 23 inches of rain in the last 30 days. 

water streaming through the barnyard

Needless to say, the plants on the farm have been affected by the soggy conditions and by the hailstorm.  The strawberry patch that was ready to fill pints for the shares this week is done for the season.  The berries looked like they had been beaten up by a small-fisted fairy.  This week’s lettuces were shredded.  The kale and chard leaves were full of holes, so on Saturday the CSA workers and the farm crew stripped the plants down to the younger good leaves.  The young tomato plants lost limbs, flowers and fruit to the hail.  The peppers and eggplant were almost washed away.  We spent part of the last two afternoons covering them in a thick layer of compost and hay mulch with the hopes that they will recover. 

Please expect lighter shares for the next few weeks at least.  The spring crops are coming to an abrupt end and the summer crops are not nearly ready for harvest.  We appreciate everyone’s understanding of our situation and feel so fortunate to have a community supporting us through the good and the bad weather.  There is still time to plant more summer crops which we have been doing any chance we get.  There is also the fall season still to go.  We are optimistic that we can provide a bounty of crops to you, our dear supporters.  Just let the sun shine! 

In the Share – Week 3

rain, strawberries

STRAWBERRIES F2/P1  The harvest is in full force right now and the berries as yummy as they are pretty.

LETTUCE F2/P1  Green romaine and butterheads for the full shares, red leaf lettuce for the partials.

TATSOI F/P  Sweet and tender enough to eat raw, but also great stir-fried.

GREEN ONIONS OR GREEN GARLIC F  Last of both for a while. 

HAKUREI TURNIPS F/P  an inch of rain in every bite!!

BROCCOLI F/P  We are proud of our broccoli this week.  It survived another crazy Missouri Spring and is beautiful, tender and delicious!

GAI LAN F  “Chinese broccoli” is our newest favorite crop.  See Tom’s blog for methods of preparation.

PARSLEY OR CILANTRO F/P 

NEXT WEEK:  More strawberries, lettuces, kale, chard, radishes, bok choy and herbs.  Perhaps the first of the kohlrabi and sugarsnap peas.

FARM REPORT:
Holy deluge, Batman!  Another inch of rain fell last night, making the total in May so far over 12 inches.  The weather folks say that we have a new record for number of rainy days in the month of May.  We would rather if the weather stayed within the data of the last 100 years or so since we started keeping track, but every year there is some new extreme event – latest freeze, driest year, hottest year, wettest Spring, etc. 

The fields are full of running water and mud.  In many places we have grass paths and some mulch down, but harvesting the un-mulched broccoli (that I was so happy about a few weeks back!) was a messy job today.  Tom and I are incredibly happy with how the crops are handling the water so far.  Later on we aren’t so sure about the summer crops, but the broccoli, strawberries and lettuces are exceptionally nice right now.  Not many growers in the area go to the trouble with these crops as they can be unpredictable and are labor-intensive.   But when they are at their best, like they are now, the work is so worth it.  We hope that our CSA supporters appreciate the love and attention that goes into the food that we are offering and enjoy the bounty!

In the Share: Week 2 Extended Season

butterhead lettuce, peas, rain, sugar snap peas, workshop
BUTTERHEAD LETTUCE  the first of hopefully many more.

RED LEAF OR ROMAINE LETTUCE ditto

RADISHES AND TURNIPS  the first round of pulling these, next week they’ll be bigger.

CARROTS  From our patch that we overwintered growing in the high tunnel.

PEA SHOOTS  Its the first time we have ever grown these.  There is just a small bundle for each share.  Let us know what you think.  See Tom’s post for more info.

BOK CHOY  See Tom’s post for tips on stir-fry

ASPARAGUS OR SPINACH  Sorry to say, the asparagus patch is still not giving us much to work with.  We are hoping for an improvement soon, but in the meantime there is some luscious spinach from the fields and high tunnel.

ARUGULA, KALE OR SWISS CHARD  Eat your greens!

HERBS  Cilantro & dill

GREEN GARLIC  Like a green onion, a green garlic is the whole plant pulled when young. 

NEXT WEEK:  More lettuce, greens, radishes and turnips, green onions, herbs and asparagus.

FARM REPORT:
All of the Spring crops are in the ground and are off to a good start.  Tending to them is our focus this week before we things get busy with the planting of the summer crops. 

The onions we started in the greenhouse back in January have been in the ground for over a month now. 

You can see the organic matter leftover from last summer’s cover crop of sorghum sudan grass and sunhemp still visible on the surface.  Farmers like to call this residue “trash”, as in “the trash gummed up the equipment”.  I can be known to complain about it when I plant the first carrots of the season, however, the plants that feed us do very well thanks to the nutrients that our cover crops provide.  This year’s soil test shows a dramatic increase in the organic matter in our soil which is now between 4 and 5 %, up from 2-3 a few years back.  Doesn’t sound like a lot, but a doubling of organic matter is significant.  Some prairie soils are up around 7%.

The first CSA workers came out last week and joined us in our work.  The harvest goes quick with just 20-30 shares per morning, and we had lots of time for other tasks.  The sugarsnap peas got mulched and fenced in between rain showers on Saturday.

Others made row cover pins in the new workshop. 

 
Tom and I feel incredibly fortunate to have the support from our community.  Our family farm benefits from everyone’s participation in our work.  We hope that our members look forward to their farm shifts as much as we do.  Thank you!


In the Share – Week 22

cauliflower, high tunnel, rain

CAULIFLOWER OR BROCCOLI F/P

SWEET PEPPERS F/P  A big bag for everyone.  See Tom’s post for easy ways to use them/preserve them.

HOT PEPPERS F/P  A selection of jalapenos, Anaheims and hot wax.

EGGPLANT F  We picked baby eggplant in case we had frost.

CARROTS F/P  More snack-size ones.

ONIONS F  storage yellows and reds.

LEEKS F/P  The white part of the leeks are very nice this year – so long they barely fit in the crates!

GREENS CHOICE F  Swiss chard, kale or bok choy

GOLD BALL TURNIPS W/TOPS F  These are great stewing or roasting turnips.  Like most roots they store best without their tops, so separate them before you refrigerate them. 

TURNIPS AND RADISHES P

TOMATO F

NEXT WEEK:  More cauliflower, broccoli, turnips, lettuce and greens.  Potatoes, garlic and beets.  New:  the first of the bulb fennel.

FARM REPORT:
An extraordinary week has passed that included a five inch rainstorm, the threat of frost and Tom away at his niece’s wedding.  All went well as the farm crew kicked into high gear to make it happen.  See Tom’s photo of the bride escorted by her Tom’s sister, Fran and husband Woody.  Congratulations to Barbara and Mike! 

Last week I mentioned how lucky we are to work in the beautiful outdoors with rainbows overhead and such.  Three days later we get this lovely sight…

After two days of rain, the forecast for Friday night fell to 36 deg. F.  Not knowing for sure if a frost was coming or not, we decided to bulk harvest the peppers, eggplants and tomatoes and pull out the row cover for the lettuces, fennel, chard and herbs.  Saturday morning came with only frost on the roof, but not in the fields.  All of our work is not in vain as we are now well-prepared for the next time frost threatens. 

Temporary covers protected the crops in the high tunnel during the frost scare, but  by Monday we were ready to put the real cover on.  It is always exciting to play with a 40′ x 100′ piece of plastic.  This time went much better than last year.  The biggest change is that we are using a single layer instead of a double layer.  This makes it a lot lighter and easier to attach.  Also, less plastic! 

In the Share – Week 5

cabbage, cats, new barn, rain

CABBAGE F  The first of the spring harvest.  I am looking forward to some cole slaw!

LETTUCE F/P  We lost some heads to the heat and now to the damp, so just one head for all this week:  red leaf and romaine.

SUGAR SNAP or SNOW PEAS F/P  The peas are plump with the rain.

BROCCOLI F/P  The last of the Spring crop.  We’ll be planting more for the fall soon.

STRAWBERRIES F  An early end to the harvest we think is due to the many flowers that froze a few weeks back. Sorry we couldn’t get enough for everyone, but it is slim pickings. 

KALE, SWISS CHARD OR BOK CHOY  It is good green growing weather.

BEETS F/P  It will be a muddy job tomorrow, but I am determined to harvest my favorite vegetable. 

GREEN ONIONS, GREEN GARLIC OR GARLIC SCAPES F/P 

HERB CHOICE F parsley and fennel

NEXT WEEK:  More lettuce, cabbage, greens and herbs.  Turnips, kohlrabi and zucchini.

FARM REPORT:
The weather couldn’t be more different than ten days ago.  We went from just over an inch of rain for the whole month of May with hot weather to 7 inches of rain and a wind from the North. 

In this instance our changing climate is coupled with a pretty drastic change in the weather.  This follows an earlier very drastic change in the weather when we went from a freeze for two nights to 90 degree F temperatures.  It is hard to know what to expect next. 

Meanwhile, the farm is very soggy.  We worry that the roots of the plants will rot if this lasts much longer.  One of our worst tomato crops lived through a prolonged cold/wet spell like this and never fully recovered.  While a drought is never our wish, we are much better equipped to bring water to the fields than to remove it.  Luckily, we grow many different crops and some thrive in wet years.

On top of this dreary weather, we lost of member of the farm team this past Sunday.  Sunny, the cat, was found nine Springs ago by Amy Boussman, our first farm apprentice.  He was huddled under the old apprentice camper in the middle of a thunderstorm.  His mom, Momma kitty, soon joined him and the two have been with us ever since.  Sunny was a good hunter, a sweet Momma’s boy and he is missed. 

There is nothing to do but press on and look to the future.  Groundbreaking began on Monday for the new equipment barn.  We have hired a team to do the work for us since we could never find the time to complete such a large undertaking ourselves.  We are looking forward to having space for our equipment, a functional indoor shop and space to clean out and remodel the old barn.

In the Share – Week 18

beans, high tunnel construction, rain
 

TOMATOES (F/P) Five inches of rain bursts a ripe tomato like a balloon, so good “share-worthy” tomatoes are in short supply this week. Not that we are complaining, the rain was most welcome.

RATTLESNAKE BEANS (F/P) The snakes are coming on well now. A big THANK YOU goes to the Saturday crew which picked in the rain and mud with us – we couldn’t have done it without you all!

PINK BEAUTY RADISHES (F/P) The first fresh roots of the fall. I like their light mustardy kick, but if you aren’t so enchanted give them a quick fry to mellow their heat.

BUTTERNUT SQUASH (F/P) The last of the cucurbitae family for the year, unfortunately. Their early demise we think is due to a combination of record heat, record drought and the bugs who didn’t seem to mind either. Thankfully, the drought appears to be over.  See Tom’s post for a great curried butternut squash soup recipe.

EGGPLANT, OKRA OR SWEET PEPPERS (F) These three summer fruits will escort us into the fall season and stay with us until first frost.

ARUGULA (F) the plants were beaten up a bit by the strong wind and rain last night, but they are still very nice for a fresh salad. A common (and tasty!) arugula salad is with a red wine vinaigrette, roasted beets and walnuts. Yum! Add a bit of goat cheese and wow! Partial shares get a choice of arugula with their herb choice.

KALE OR COLLARDS (P) The greens are so juicy right now with all of the rain which is just what is needed after a hot, sweaty day in the fields.

HERB CHOICE (F/P) Parsley, basil or a dried herb.

GARLIC (F/P)  Honestly, with every thing else going on this week we haven’t looked at it lately.  Tomorrow we will clean and grade it and we think we should have garlic for all.

ALSO THIS WEEK: Parker Farms CSA shares

NEXT WEEK: More tomatoes, peppers, okra, eggplant, radishes and greens. Lettuce returns! More onions.

FARM REPORT:

It is wrong to appreciate a hurricane that caused the suffering of our neighbors to the south, but we were very happy to receive Isaac’s leftovers. Our rain gauge tops out at 5 inches, so we are guessing we got a bit over that in the last four days. Besides the cracked tomatoes and a few broken arugula leaves we seem to have survived the deluge in good shape. The rain cannot undo all of the damage from a summer of drought and extreme temperatures, but we can already see results in the field. Our young green plants for fall are growing fast and well. The summer fruits have a new batch of flowers and all of the cover crop seeds that wouldn’t sprout without rain all summer are sprouting now.

 

The farm crew continues on the high tunnel project. Both side walls with their drop curtains are up and finished. The last step for the curtain is to run a rope in zig-zag fashion down the length. Tom caught farm apprentices, Dani Hurst and Ryan Stubby, making shadow puppets as they secured the rope.