Aug 31

Wow. Seems strange to write that date! August is OVER!

There is still a lot going on here on the farm, but gears seem to be shifting again. I noticed it before, when we shifted from planting and weeding to weeding and harvesting. Now, there is actually not much weeding going on (well, the collards could use a little attention, but...) and the harvesting is finishing for some crops. One row of cucumbers has been tilled under (there is one more that is being very fruitful...the full-share CSA's got 6 in their boxes today!). A row of yellow squash and zucchini have slowed production considerably. (There are two more short row of zucchini, green and yellow.) The beans, which have been the bane of my existence (OK, I guess that's a bit of an exaggeration...) are done for the year.

The poor, poor tomatoes, also. They have had the deck stacked against them almost from the beginning. We were delayed in getting them trellised, we were delayed in getting them mulched, they were overcome with weeds, completely saturated with 2 occasions of +5" of rain and many others of lesser amounts, most accompanied by high winds...the poor things were fighting a losing battle. And, after the hot spell we had a couple weeks ago, shortly after they were really coming into full flower production, I learned  something about tomato plants I didn't know before. If the overnight temps don't fall below 70º, the flowers will drop off the plants. No flowers = no tomatoes.

Whether it's a good thing, or a bad thing, most other area farms are experiencing the same fate with their tomatoes. Featherstone Farm is a large CSA farm located in Rushford, MN, just south of I90, between Rochester and La Crosse. They estimate they've lost $130,000 in crops this year from weather-related issues alone. Obviously, our troubles are nothing compared to that! But, the weather has certainly taken it's toll.

As some crops finish, though, there are other things to take their place. The collards, for example! And, we've planted more successions of leaf and head lettuce. There's more plantings of broccoli, cabbage, cilantro and dill. We haven't even gotten into the winter squash yet, and, oh gosh. I can't even remember what else is still out there. It's different, though. And some rows are done for the year. They will be getting cover crops planted soon, so the weeds don't move in! (The cover crops she has chosen will stay in the ground for the rest of the season. The frost will kill them off, but, they'll stay on the ground to protect it from erosion, etc. The dead plants will be tilled under in the spring adding organic matter to the soil.)

This coming Thursday will be our last "Pizza Night". We will be open, with pizza available, on Saturdays, from 11:00 to 6:00 throughout September and October, though. It will be more of a "harvest" festival kind of atmosphere. Hopefully, if that works into peoples' schedules better, we can get some folks out here!