Managing the Heat

It’s 106° right now. Paul has gone out for the fourth time today (it’s Sunday) to “check water”. Daytime highs are predicted to be around 100° for the next 10 days. Keeping the crops and the field crew hydrated is essential to ensure harvestable produce in the next month or so.

Yesterday I took some photos of things as they manage. It was 100°.

Fennel, Kale, Collard and Scarlett Kale, ready to harvest.

Potatoes (in the foreground) are looking healthy.

These lettuces were planted two days ago.

The bees are very busy in the heat.

Looking across 6 weeks of lettuce plantings; Red Butter, Little Gem, Rosaine, Cherokee and Romaine. We need to cover the Little Gem in the last stage, so it’s not feeding the rabbits!

Summer is always busy. As the heat continues, we are relieved by the decision not to host the Saturday Farm Stand this year. Because we farm year-round, we have to use our energy wisely. Our sense of pace is maturing.

Fall is in the air.

Hard to believe but we’re more than half way through 2015. Pumpkins and other winter squash are ripening. The corn is finished, much to the disappointment of our local customers. Tomatoes are ripe and the melons are so aromatic the bees are tumbling around in their flowers. The pictures should speak louder than my words.

August 11, just before the onions began drying down.

August 23, onions drying down

Paul preps the field for planting chicories.

Winter squash is thriving, with Santos planting chicories in the background.

Serrano peppers are loaded!

Two types of lettuce, ready to transplant, with a bed all ready.

Four successions of sunflowers, planted every two weeks.

Eggplant! The first planting was lost. This crop is coming very soon.

Fennel and radicchio dot the field.

Our kales and other greens have had a hard summer.

The next two crops of beans. We’ve been gapping on beans. They should be back at the market next week…

Giant pumpkins are revealing themselves by the Farm Stand.

“Sunshine” kabocha squash

Shallots and red onions dry under the big old oak. Nice place for the bees, huh?

Is this summer?

It’s pretty warm today, mid-80s and the crew is planting tomatoes. Sounds like summer to me.

The busy front field has been prepped with compost. It lay fallow about a month, after crops of brussels sprouts, dandelion, kales and collard were mowed. The previous crops were digested well enough to plant today, about 1600 plants, early girls and the heirlooms, 11 varieties in all. This is the second planting for the early girls.

Now, the large greenhouse becomes a shade house.

The leeks are beginning to bolt. The need to be harvested soon.

We have some new residence, in a most honorable spot under the Mother Oak tree. They seem in great spirits with flowers in every direction.

New hives! Thank you, Serge.