Hot & dry, irrigation woes, basket weeding, tots & birds at the farm, summer squash, getting caught up.

The weather stays hot and dry. Yesterday’s peak temperature was 87° F. As I write this at 11:15 it is already 81° F. Our last rain was a week and a half ago and the weather forecast is sun and hot through Saturday. We are now managing irrigation in earnest, trying to make sure all the crops get the water they need. The pump in our well has a maximum capacity for volume and pressure, so we have to keep something going round the clock.

In Thursday morning’s entry I mentioned our new basket weeder. I was not looking forward to changing toolbars on the Allis Chalmers G. Due to the weight and awkward position of the implement I had guessed it would take four people to switch over. Thursday after the crew left for the day at 3 and the farmstand had quieted down for the afternoon, I decided I didn’t want to wait another day to try out the new tool. I guess I must have the strength of four – I managed to switch over by myself. Next time I’ll recruit some helpers. The basket weeder works as described, with good results on small weeds. Thursday and Friday I ran it through the sweet corn, the ornamental corn and a good part of the corn maze.

The Buddingh basket weeder mounted on the Allis Chalmers G tractor. Each basket weeder is custom made for the particular application. There are two rows of baskets that roll on the ground, uprooting small weeds. A chain links gears on the two rows of baskets. The front row spins the second row. The second row of baskets is geared to turn faster, so the soil is flung back. You can drive this weeder through the field quite fast. I was up to nearly maximum speed on the Allis Chalmers. Our planter plants three rows 16 inches apart. The 11-inch wide baskets are spaced at 5 inches apart. The gap between baskets is centered on the planted row. The aisles between the rows are effectively weeded, but this weeder does not control weeds in the planted row. Our original cultivator setup has “sweeps” or “knives” that move soil into the planted row, thus smothering small weeds between the crop plants. However, I don’t dare to use that cultivator until the crop plants are big enough to survive having the soil mounded up. Thus the two cultivators work better in combination.

Farm Tots keeps on growing and exceeding our expectations. It is great to see people discovering our farm and then bringing their friends the next week. On Friday we decided to add a Wednesday morning session so we could maintain the experience that is bringing so many to the farm. If Wednesday fills up we will have to think about afternoon sessions.

Last week the Farm Tots theme was worms, always a popular topic. Nancy brought worms from her composting worm bin. Nancy is always a dynamic teacher and group leader, but she has a particular passion for teaching about worms. Each child took home a small cup with some potting soil and a worm for their garden or yard. Many of the worms were immediately given new names. I heard two little girls singing lullabies to their worms. I don’t know how successful the lullabies were.

This week the theme is birds at the farm. Last week one of the Farm Tots visitors asked if they were likely to see the blue heron I have been mentioning in the blog. I tried to lower expectations, saying that I only saw the bird on occasion. During the first hayride that day, a hawk flew right in front of the tractor and into the apple orchard. Flying out of the orchard came the blue heron. It was wonderful timing. Luckily the visitor was on that hayride and saw the birds, since I didn’t see the heron again that day.

The Farm Tots U-Pick for the week was Swiss chard. I was very pleased to see how happy the kids and parents were with their chard. We do grow a beautiful rainbow-colored mixture that tastes great, but I’m sure there were more than a few who had never tried chard before. This week the tots will be picking raspberries. I’m not worried about raspberries receiving a less than enthusiastic reception.

The weeds (and crops) continue to grow like mad. On Friday I hired in one extra worker and am still looking for several more to continue through next week. I’d like to complete the first weeding of the pumpkins, squash, sweet corn, and the corn maze field so I can take off the Fourth of July in good conscience. We also need to put up the bird netting over the blueberries and set up the trellis wires and twine in the hoophouses. Those tomatoes and cucumbers are growing fast. It’s nearly time to start pruning and training the plants to the trellis. Staking the outside tomatoes can probably wait until next week. I have been promising to bring the goats and ducks down to the farm for the Farm Tots program, but first we need to build an animal enclosure near the June/July farmstand to keep the coyotes away. Those of you who have come to the farm throughout the year know that in June we set up the farmstand near the raspberries. In August, when the raspberries are mostly finished, we move the farmstand close to the NE 124^th St entrance, where it remains until the farmstand closes at the end of October. We already have an animal enclosure near the August/September/October farmstand site.

On Friday morning we planted lettuce, spinach, and tomatillos. The crew went ahead and weeded the summer squash near the newly planted tomatillos. That’s when I noticed that one of the varieties was already producing squash. On Saturday I picked our  first summer squash of the year. Magda is a new variety for our farm. It’s a Mid-East or “Cousa” type squash. One of the pleasures of growing is trying a new variety and finding that the quality meets the description in seed catalog. I cut up one of the new squash and shared it with the farmstand folks, a couple of customers who happened to be there, and the farm management committee. Everyone liked it raw. The texture is firm; the flavor is nutty and just a little sweet. Some people mentioned melon – I think that is just the sweetness. It looks a bit like a zucchini, but is definitely a different squash entirely. We sold out the small amount I picked, so I haven’t had a chance to try it cooked. Magda is at least a week ahead of our other summer squash varieties.

Magda: A delicious Mid-East summer squash. Our first summer squash for 2006.

Friday I also noticed a few 2 to 3 inch diameter heads of cauliflower.  With the recent heat, I’m expecting to start picking cauliflower this week.

We held our monthly farm management committee meeting at the farm on Saturday. We spent half of the meeting talking with Claire about her plans for the Root Connection Farm.

After closing the farmstand on Saturday I made the final irrigation rounds, turning some areas off and others on. One major advantage of the drip system is that we can continue to slowly irrigate at night without over watering. As I was working with a water faucet installed by a prior renter, the whole thing came out of the ground, leaving a bubbling geyser. I had to shut off the irrigation system for the entire north half of the farm.  I decided to deal with the repair later when the crew was there.

It turned out that "later" came Sunday afternoon with a phone call from Chef/Farmer Brian, who wanted to know how he was going to water his plants with no water. I had decided to ignore the farm for one day (except for feeding the animals twice and shifting irrigation three times), but I should have anticipated that Brian would be working in his field on Sunday and Monday, when he could get away from the restaurant. I recruited my son Andrew to help dig out the underground water line and headed down to the farm. In the meantime Brian found a valve by the broken faucet that I had missed in the flood. Turning this valve off isolated the broken waterline, which allowed us to turn most of the irrigation system back on. To get more water to Brian's field I turned a waterline on the other side of Brian’s field. When that didn’t work, I tracked down a break in that line caused when mowing the apple orchard. After repairing that break Andrew and I headed out for a cold drink and I headed home for a rare Sunday afternoon snooze. Of course the several phone calls from farm committee members all came just as I was drifting off. Still I managed to rest up some. We are working an extra day this week to try to get ahead of things, so I'll be taking it easy when I can.

Today we have two extra workers. First we started out weeding of the main pumpkin patch. I haven’t used the raised beds and the plastic in this patch since this is where our visitors will be looking for their pumpkins in October. Our antique cultivator mounted on the John Deere tractor made fast work of the weeds in the aisles between the rows. We still have to weed by hand in the row between the pumpkin plants. I expect we will do one more weeding before the plants get big and shade out most of the weeds. The crew is now back weeding the corn maze field. Tomorrow we’ll start out weeding the distinctive pumpkin field and some of the sweet corn before spending most of the day weeding in the corn maze field.

What’s playing today in the Jeep CD player?  Dao Dezi – Dao Dezi