Melons and sweet corn come and go, tents moved and a hoophouse built, Melon Madness, Salsa Celebration, how the sunflower corn maze came to be, fall arrives with miniature pumpkins, gourds, and winter squash.
It’s been seven long and eventful weeks since my last entry. Summer flew by and now we are into the fall season. Melons and sweet corn have come and gone. The corn maze is open and we are starting the winter squash and pumpkin harvests.
This summer was one of the driest stretches on record. I spent a lot of time turning irrigation on and off. In the last two weeks we had some rain; enough to start greening up the grass again. It was also cool enough that we all put on extra layers of clothing for a week or so. This week is back to sunny days.
I’m going to try to capture some of the events of the late summer in a week by week listing. I also have quite a few photos in this entry. I'm sure I've missed lots of good stuff.
August 8 to 13
Back in early to mid August we were heading into peak production for many of the summer crops. The raspberries were slowing down, but the thornless blackberries were coming on strong. We were harvesting our first apples of the year – the Williams Pride. Bell peppers were finally producing well. The beans were not quite ready to pick, but showing promise.
The runner beans always put on a show of beautiful flowers. I always plant the runner beans on the outside of the path to show them off. This variety is called Scarlet Runner.
I was worrying about having enough melons for the Melon Madness event the following weekend. The crew flagged and staked the corn maze field so I could get started cutting out the paths. I was still working on the maze design.
I purchased a canopy for the John Deere tractor. The shade was appreciated during the sunny summer days. I anticipate that the shelter will also help during the fall rains.
The new canopy installed on the John Deere tractor
We started a new major project that week; building a new hoophouse near the NE 124th St. entrance. More on that project later.
August 14 to 20
On Monday we moved the farmstand and all the assorted stuff to our late summer / fall location near the NE 124th St entrance. On Wednesday we finished the new hoophouse.
The hoophouse skeleton. This photo of the partially finished hoophouse shows Jaime working on assembling the metal framework.
This hoophouse is 30 by 50 ft (1500 square ft.). My plans are that in the late summer and fall it will serve as a shelter for farm visitors, particularly the Farm Tots program. Over the winter we will add sides and end walls and prepare it for use as our plant starts greenhouse, mostly replacing the woefully undersized greenhouse we have used the last two years, which was only about 850 square ft. Our other hoophouses are all 20 by 50 ft (1000 square ft.).
We also rebuilt the animal enclosure near NE 124th St, modeling the new design on the new enclosure near the spring / early summer farmstand location.
When I ordered the canopy for the John Deere tractor, I also ordered an umbrella for the Ford 8N tractor. That little patch of shade definitely helps during the long hot sunny August days.
The Ford 8N tractor with its new red umbrella.
On Saturday August 19 we held our Melon Madness event. I was pleased with the variety of melons and watermelons that ripened just in time. If I remember correctly, we had 5 or 6 watermelon varieties and a similar number of melon varieties.
August 21 to 27
This week we harvested the onions. We had been selling fresh onions – bulbs with the greens attached. This week the onions were mature enough to harvest the rest of the crop. The crew pulled all the onions and laid them out on the weed plastic to cure. About a week later they came back and cut off the roots and dried leaves. We store the onions in 10-pound bags in a shaded hoophouse. Last year we had enough to sell until the end of the season. This year we still have plenty of the cippolini and red onions. We sold most of the Walla Walla onions as fresh onions before the final harvest date arrived.
The heat and the dry weather were pushing many of the crops to bolt. Lettuce and spinach grew and bolted very quickly. The first crop of brocolli had been through several cuttings and was going to flower faster than we could harvest. Other vegetables and the melons were thriving in the heat. This is the week we started our Dig-Your-Own potatoes – always a very popular activity.
Summer squash – mostly yellow crookneck and Romanesco zucchini.
Farmstand view – cucumbers, Swiss chard, cabbage, and garlic.
By this week I was working hard cutting the paths in the corn maze. I had progressed far enough for the crew to follow behind to prepare the paths. Each year I cut and mow out the paths with a hoe and our field mower. The crew cleans up the paths and tills with our walk-behind tillers. This gives the best footing for our corn maze visitors. I settled on a sunflower design this year. I started with a photograph of a sunflower taken last year. I changed the photo to black & white and started increasing contrast and simplifying the design until I felt I could use it as the basis for a maze. The final design is basic similar to the original photo, but has many changes. I have to create the main and side paths in a way that gives me a graphic design that I like and that also works well as a walk-through maze at the ground level.
This is the sunflower that inspired the 2006 corn maze design.
The South 47 Farm 2006 corn maze design.
August 28 to September 4
We finally got in the shade cloth for the new hoophouse. The prior weeks had been overcast, so the shade wasn’t missed that much, but the shade cloth came just in time for a sunny week at the farm.
Our new hoophouse covered in shade cloth. We are now using it as a shelter for visitors. Later we will cover the ends and sides for use as a greenhouse.
This week beans, tomatoes, peppers, summer squash, and melons were all producing well, while the cucumbers were starting to slow down.
Here is one of our U-Pick areas, with tomatoes, Swiss chard, and lettuce (left to right) in the front and the farmstand and pole beans in the background. The view is looking to the east. The corn maze is at the far left in the photo.
Here we are looking at the same U-Pick field from the other end (looking to the west). On the left you can see part of our little pole bean maze. To right are the tomatoes. In the front is one of our photo opportunity signs. People really seem to get a kick out of these things. All of ours are sized for kids - I should probably get one for the grownups too.
This was an intensive week in preparing the corn maze. I finished cutting the paths early in the week, but that still left hours of work preparing and tilling the paths.
A groomed path in the corn maze. I took this photo before we put up the hazard tape along the edges of the paths to encourage folks to stay on the path.
We also pulled all the flags and stakes and put up gates at the entrance and exit.
On Friday the weather cleared enough for the aerial photo, taken by Aerolist Photographers. This year I missed the plane fly-over. Aerolist posted the photo proofs that same day, so I was able to make my selection that same afternoon.
The aerial view of The South 47 Farm 2006 corn maze. (Photo by Aerolistphoto.com) I always look at the first photo with some trepidation. I am always amazed at how well graphic on the 5 or 6 acre field matches the original drawing on a standard sheet of paper. Someday I'll get up in the air and see it for myself.
Meanwhile I still hadn’t written most of the hint questions. We put signposts with hints at many of the branch points in the maze. If you know the correct answer to the question you are lead in the correct direction. When you guess wrong you find a dead end marked with a sign providing more information. We have posted the questions from prior years on our website. I try for balance of easy and tough, interesting and informative, quirky (or goofy) and straightforward. Several years ago I added a second activity – a hunt for the hidden signs. Each hidden sign has a different paper punch. If you find all the signs and punch your map with all the different punches you win a miniature pumpkin as a prize. To find them all you have to go down every wrong turn, so this can extend your visit quite a while. This year I put corny farm jokes on the hidden signs. They get more groans and smiles than laughs, but seem pretty popular. I’ll have to work all year to come up with new batch of awful jokes for next year.
I got the questions in pretty good shape by Sunday, so we took Labor Day off.
September 5 to 10
Again this was a peak week for melons and watermelons, along with tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplant and other heat-loving crops. Spinach was picking up again as the summer heat was lessening.
Collective Farm Woman is a favorite melon we discovered last year. The white flesh is sweet and a bit crunchy.
The beautiful melon Tigger doesn't have a lot of flavor, but it has a wonderful aroma. We suggest keeping one in a room as just for the fragrance.
We opened the corn maze on Wednesday, September 6. Most of the folks who come early in the season are returnees who have been to the corn maze in prior years.
Now that the crew was mostly finished in the corn maze we could catch up with some other tasks. They finished preparing all the garlic and onions for sale and bagged them all in 10-pound bags. We finally took down the pea trellises. Famai Chang, one of our renters asked us to spade parts of his field where the bindweed was taking hold – Enrique stared that on Sunday.
Once we start the corn maze we open the farm stand on Sundays, going from 4 to 5 days open each week this year. The field crew also shifts to working Wednesday through Sunday. This means we no longer have a catch-up day to work when we don’t have to watch out for visitors.
September 11 to 17
Rain and overcast skies arrived for the second week of the corn maze. The weather also dampened the Farm Tots attendance. Even so, the rain didn’t soak very far into the soil. We were able to get some spading done in some of our fields. We finally mowed the apple orchard. There has been lots of interest in apple picking. We cleared out the starts greenhouse to prepare for the gourd and squash harvest starting the following week.
On Saturday September 16 we held our first Salsa celebration event. We made four salsas: garden fresh, toasted tomatillo, roasted corn, and melon. The tomatillo was probably the crowd favorite.
Sheila and Evert help a customer in the farmstand. Shelia started working with us in late August. Evert started in early September. You will have a good chance of meeting them if you visit the farm. Note our new t-shirts hanging in the background.
September 18-24
Last week brought more rain during the week, further dampening attendance. We were happy to see many of our regulars at the farm in spite of the weather.
Overcast skies on Wednesday Sept. 20. The signboard is one of our photo opportunity spots. It does show that the corn is well over 6 ft tall this year. The scarecrow is another favorite photo spot.
We were still harvesting a wide variety of crops, as shown in the following photo.
We usually discuss the current week’s crops as part of the Farm Tots program. On Friday I noticed this collection Cindi and Nancy put together for the program. The small basket holds salsa fixings – heirloom tomatoes, peppers, & tomatillos. The larger basket holds sweet corn, a watermelon, a melon, carrots, leeks, onions, summer squash, and zucchini.
The sun started to return on Friday, and Saturday and Sunday were beautiful sunny days. Fall officially started this week, and sure enough, we started harvesting the mini pumpkins and gourds.
This is one of our 4 different miniature pumpkins, the baseball sized We-Be-Little.
We grow a wide variety of small gourds. This year I chose 5 different gourd mixes to get the variety of shapes and colors I wanted.
Sadly, this was the last week for watermelons, melons, and sweet corn.
We have two pumpkin fields where we grow most of the pumpkins in addition to the main pumpkin patch we open to our visitors. On Sunday afternoon the crew started the pumpkin harvest in our new field on top of the hill (near the Redmond-Woodinville Rd. entrance). They cut the pumpkins from the vines in preparation for moving the pumpkins to our pumpkin patch. That field also has some of the Winter Luxury Pie. I’ve read some glowing reports about this variety. It is a distinctive and beautiful pumpkin. The orange skin glows through the white netting – like a cantaloupe. It is supposed to make a wonderfully sweet and smooth pie. We’ll have to wait another week or so to find out.
Winter Luxury Pie – a beautiful old heirloom pumpkin new to The South 47 Farm
September 25 & 26
On Monday Cindi met with the farm tour leaders to prepare for our school and preschool Pumpkin Tours. These tours start next week. We pulled the scarecrows down from storage and they set them up. Our tour is strictly a fall harvest tour and avoids all the Halloweeny stuff. I worked on updating records and photos and started writing this entry.
Today is an extra workday for the crew. This morning they harvested winter squash. Now we have bins of Sunshine, Red Kuri, Blue Ballet, Carnival, and Sweet Dumpling ready to stock the farmstand. The crew started cutting pumpkins in the main pumpkin patch this afternoon in preparation for tomorrow’s first day of sales. And, along with today's winter squash focus I finally managed to get this entry posted.
Red Kuri is a sweet and flavorful squash – a favorite.
The colorful winter squash Carnival. Why settle for a plain dark green acorn squash when you can have a Carnival?
Blue Ballet is a small Hubbard type squash – downsized for today’s cooking trends.
What’s up tomorrow? The first farmstand day for winter squash and the Pumpkin Patch. I also expect a visit from KOMO news and the Heart of Washington to take background and intro film footage for a series of programs on local Washington produce. We’ll move more pumpkins and start preparing for the Pumpkin Tours next week. The weather forecasts predict sunny or mostly sunny until Sunday or Monday, when we may get a little rain.
What’s playing today in the Jeep CD player? Ozomatli – Street Signs