Lots of heat lately, and not much rain. In the old days, such a situation might have meant massive crop failure for a farm like ours. But contrary to some folks' opinion that small, pesticide-free farms are trying to revert to some romanticized, primitive form of agriculture, most of your locally focused family farms are in on the cutting edge of vegetable production. We survive this drought because we utilize water conserving, efficient technology, like drip tape, which slowly delivers valuable moisture, drop by drop, right at the base of the plants, where they can best suck it up with their extensive root systems and thrive. Many of our veggie beds are also covered with straw, which helps maintain moist soil so plants need less irrigation. Straw also chokes out weeds, adds organic matter to the soil as it breaks down, and promotes microbial and other life activity at the soil surface. All of which help contribute to long term land health and stronger, more resilient plants here at the Plot.
Hope you all are enjoying your summer squash and tomatoes lately. Those plants are just eating up all this heat and producing fruit like you wouldn't believe. Every week we're pulling hundreds upon hundreds of pounds of these two veggies out of the field, which, as you can imagine, can be back-breaking, especially when it comes to squash. And despite a bit of a tomato horn worm infestation on some of the heirlooms, the tomatoes look like they're gonna keep coming on strong for at least the next couple weeks. Some of the squash plants look beat, but that probably won't upset too many of us.
Elsewhere, we got some beautiful lettuce coming up, including a nice romaine for the first time this year. We direct seeded some spinach, arugula, and radishes for your autumnal enjoyment. And maybe, if we're lucky, we'll get a few different kinds of peppers out of the field before it starts to cool down too much.
joe
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