Here comes the freeze, looking for damage, onions, melons, the continuing saga of the office reorganization, Bug Basics
We have been seeing more freezing overnight, although the day temperatures are still reaching into the 40’s. Tonight’s prediction is for a hard freeze reaching below 20 degrees. Rob is out picking up some electrical heat tape to wrap around the pipes of our two wells.
I have been watching the garlic for freeze damage. Yesterday was the first time I saw obvious dieback on a few sprouts. I had asked the crew to come to work this week to prune blueberries. Enrique, Jaime, & Juan were able to work. Due to the weather forecast I diverted them to covering the garlic with row cover. I didn’t want to put the straw back and shade out the sun again. The row cover will let much of the sunlight through. The temperature under the row cover will be a few degrees higher. It will also buffer the wind and help reduce the wind chill effect. We’ll have to wait and see what happens tonight. I also had them work on the plantings at the farm entrance on 124th St.
I also noticed yesterday that the raspberry buds are starting to leaf out, something you really don’t want to see just before a hard freeze. I expect a lot of damage to the buds if they are frozen solid. We’ll see in the next couple of days if we should expect a decrease in yield.
Frost melting off of a sprouting raspberry bud.
Claire called earlier this week to ask if I wanted to share an order of onions transplants. She does quite a few onions for her CSA and gets a volume discount. Last year we grew a box each of Walla Walla and Borettana Cippolini onions. Both were very popular. A box contains 30 bundles of 60+ tiny plants. I had decided to repeat the same, but to add a box of red onions. Claire’s catalog said that the red onions were in limited supply and that there was a crop failure for the Cippolini onions. Claire called yesterday to tell me the good news that she was able to order both Borettana Cippolini and Red Burgermaster starts in addition to the Walla Wallas. We’ll plan to plant them out in about the third week of April.
I spent some time adding to the list of melons and watermelons I’d like to grow. The next step is cut the list down somewhat. We’ll have a variety of old and new favorites as well as some new choices from around the world. We will definitely repeat my new favorite melon, Collective Farm Woman, and watermelon, New Queen. We’ll try more different cantaloupes and/or muskmelons and try some new kinds, maybe a honeydew and a canary.
The flatbed truck has had some intermittent stalling problems, so we took it to the shop for a few days. They replaced the fuel injector pump and $1700 later (ouch) Rob drove it back to the farm. Rob detected some shifting problems so he took it back to the shop where they said a faulty new pump could have that effect on a diesel engine. We look for it back next week.
The office reorganization is coming along. This week Ruth was able to use her new desk to do bookkeeping, spreading her work across the desk. Quite the luxury. Actually, we’re aiming for increased efficiency. The filing is still proceeding. I’ve got my huge drifts of papers winnowed down to several tall stacks, and bite off a little more each day.
Carol has been researching credit card services for her new tax and accounting service business. We’ll be able to use her findings in making our own choices on how to go about accepting credit and debit cardsat the farmstand.
I’ve signed up together with Rob for a class “Bug Basics 101 and 102” put on by the Snohomish Extension. We’re going this Saturday and March 18, but they are offering the same classes on the following Wednesdays.
What’s playing in the Jeep CD player today? Pink Martini - Sympathique