NEWS FROM THE FARM |
August, 2009
This has been a lovely summer month. The hazy, hot and humid days that we should be having beginning in late June have finally arrived. This is good news for the crops: many of the heat-loving plants: eggplant, peppers, basil, melons and tomoates are really taking off. It may be too late for some, however: here it is the last week in August and the melons in the hoophouse are just beginning to come on. We're holding out hope for some delicous muskmelons in September, but this has been a season of small and large disappointments, so we'll just have to wait and see.
Still planting for fall: two weeks ago the tatsoi, pac choi and chinese cabbage went it, quickly followed by spinach, broccoli raab, fava beans and lots more dill and cilantro. The flea beetle seems to be on the way out for the season, so these spicy members of the brassica family, which the beetle loves as much as we do, should be safe from their destructive feeding.
The tomatoes have taken it hard this year. We lost some in the field to late blight - I pulled those plants and disposed of them instead of trying to nurse them back from the edge of dispair. The hoophouse tomatoes are doing quite well, thankfully, and there are plenty of delicous heirloom and hybrid varieties available for sale this year. The hornworm has moved in and done a bit of damage. I read over the winter that hornworm prefers dill to tomatoes and to interplant dill in with the tomato crop. That theory doesn't seem to be panning out very well - I have yet to find a hornworm on the dill!
Many farmers and home gardeners have had devastating losses this year by the blight, both in the tomato and potato fields. I heard just last week that portions of Maine have been declared disaster areas - this should provide some much needed support for some farmers up north and in central Maine who are in need of financial assistance to help cover costs and make up for some lost profits for this costly and devastating season.
The garlic was pulled in early August and it now curing in the barn. It looks like a good yield on the year - plenty for storage, sale, and seed to go out in October for next year's harvest. The onions are beginning to yellow and fall over - a sure sign that they're ready to pull and hang in the barn. The early summer rains didn't seem to bother the allium family too much: the onions are plump and beautiful and the leeks are sizing up quite nicely.
We got another batch of broilers last week which are all promised to friends. They are in the brooder for another week or so until they develop feathers and are able to regulate their body temperature on their own. Then they'll go out in the chicken tractor on pasture until sometime in October.
| September, 2009 | |
| August, 2009 | |
| July, 2009 | |
| June, 2009 | |
| May, 2009 | |
| April, 2009 | |