One word keeps running through my head this week. Resilience. And not the resilience of your favorite farmer, though I’m feeling quite resilient meself after this week! Still, our plants are far more resilient than I am. We have to be approaching double digit rainfall over the last 10 days. After such a long period of drought, the plants have to be wondering what a strange world they’ve been born into. Despite all the wacky weather, the worst the plants are showing is a small uptick in fungal diseases. Fungal diseases, like the yellowing leaves creeping up your tomato plants, spread when the plant’s leaves are wet….which has been pretty much all day and night lately!
Plants like tomatoes and beans really shouldn’t pick while the leaves are wet for that reason. Typically we can just wait and pick them the next day. But it just keeps raining. ALL DAY. EVERY DAY! A number of times I’ve tried to take advantage of a break in the rain, just to be thwarted by a big storm as soon as I get out there to pick. I just wish I had a high tunnel that could counter this zany weather and keep me and the plants dry! Pretty obvious segue right?
There’s a chance – if it ever stops raining – that the high tunnel will (finally) be going in next week! I met a new friend with a swiss army knife excavator (a very good friend to have). He removed all the rocks (err boulders) out of the way of the ground posts, leveled the area, and dug out and hooked up a frost-free water line out to the site. It wasn’t cheap, but it’ll be short money if I’m harvesting fresh greens in December! I’ll keep you posted. In the meantime, so many great veggies coming in. And the color! If you want to eat healthy, forget all the stupid diet rules. Eat the rainbow folks, and I’m not referring to skittles.
Still looking for that special someone that can come in and work their butt off through the end of the season. If that sounds like anyone you know, send them my way.
Ordering and Pickup Procedures:
Put your orders in online before 6am Monday. We’ll have your order available for you to pick-up from 4-7pm Monday on the farm at 64 Potter Hill Rd in Grafton. Pickups are in the long white garage on the left across from the big red barn at the crest of the hill.