return

Return to peasantsplot.com

Monday, July 6, 2015

Rain is bad BUT the beets look good!!!

It is official that we here on The Plot do not like rain.  (see previous post "Rain is Good, Right?")  We realize it seems like farmers are never happy. One year it is too dry, another too wet. We just heard on the radio that it is now the wettest June in Illinois recorded history.  Not surprising:  we haven't had a dry field for six weeks.  Let me repeat that:

We haven't had a dry field for six weeks.  

(I wrote that last week.)

Since we normally plant all June long and continue into weed-oppressive July, this is a huge setback for us; however it does not mean we have failed our CSA members.  No!  It just means we are pushing the season back and possibly doubling up shares in later months.  We have all kinds of schemes in our heads.  (At the height of one particularly creative brainstorming session--when no idea is a bad idea--infused vodka was part of a pantry share.)  We still plan on cucumbers and squash and potatoes and brussels and more.  We also have a good-looking broccoli crop this year, one of the few crops that made it in before the deluge.

We are not the only farmers suffering the rain this year.  Among us is Genesis Growers, down by us, who has had many of their crops washed out by the rain.

What can you do to help?  Just stay patient!  You may also try forming in your mind's eye a beautiful tomato growing in the hot sun.  Tomatoes are, turns out, in a particularly low part of our field.... So we need all the positive thinking we can get.

Todd is working like a maniac today to plow as much as he can while others plant.  Any attempt at interaction prompts his only reply "Every single second counts."  Off he goes!
Me too!--Thanks to all our CSA members who are essential to growing a local food economy, alongside us, across the cyberspace,
-Julia

Please enjoy this montage of happy (mostly) and sad (just one) photos from the farm last week:

Beets!  Next time you see us you will get beets!

The broccoli!
The tomatoes.  High tunnels are pretty great for mitigating rains,
unless you get 10 inches in a couple of days followed by 4 more
and then 2 more and more and more....

And kale! Of course kale!


We can store lettuce in our walk-in cooler now!
Thanks to Kickstarter last year!

We have a lot a lot A LOT of seedlings waiting for a dry day to go in .

These went in today.
Todd and Lucy!

No comments:

Post a Comment