Author: swfupdates

Farm Update February 26, 2016

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We already started some of the summer crops in seed trays and some of the plants have sprouted – tomatoes, chiles and sweet peppers. We will continue to plant apace in the coming 6 weeks or so.

The asparagus is coming up strongly. We will have a little bit of asparagus at the market this week and should have more in the coming weeks. I ordered another 120 one-year-old asparagus crowns which we will be planting next week. This will effectively double the size of our asparagus bed, but we won’t be harvesting any from the new crowns until the spring of 2018 – it takes a while for the crowns to get large enough to harvest spears.

The snow peas are finally blooming ! They made it through the winter and now have a good head start on spring. The cold mornings the last couple of days did no damage to them, so we will soon be harvesting peas. About one-quarter of the plants are a purple variety – these should be easier to see when harvesting.

Farm Update February 12, 2016

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Our spinach crop is finally growing more quickly. What a difference a week makes in the daytime temperatures! The spinach has been basking in the sun and warm air, so we finally have enough to include some in your shares.

I am thinking of offering work trade shares for the late spring/summer CSA program. The idea is that a work trade shareholder would work a set number of hours at the farm in exchange for a share. The work days would likely be Saturdays, since that is our busiest day, but we would have some flexibility. I am interested to know what you think about this idea, if you would be interested, if you think others may be interested and general comments on the concept.

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Spinach

Farm Update February 6, 2016

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The ability of certain plants to withstand cold is pretty amazing. This past week we have had the coldest mornings so far this winter – 12°F Wednesday morning a half-hour before sunrise and 15° Friday morning at sunrise. Thursday felt just as cold, but we didn’t check the thermometer at sunrise. On Tuesday evening, it was already down to 20° by 9:30p so the temperature was way below freezing for over 12 hours Tuesday night and Wednesday morning.

Most beds were under 2 layers of row cover (each layer affords about 4° of protection) and I watered the beds late into the night Tuesday; the valves on the driptape manifolds were freezing in position by the time I shut down the irrigation at 11p.

The spinach was one bed that had a single cover and I was worried all day at the market that I would see a freeze-damaged spinach crop when I got got back to the farm. But the spinach is just fine! The only evident damage was to the snow peas – many branches were killed by the cold, but most of the branches are fine and the plants should recover pretty quickly once it warms up. Everything else is fine. I’m thinking that the coldest weather is over now, but who knows??

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Farm Update January 30, 2016

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As I mentioned last week, we are thinking about and planning our spring and summer planting. For early spring we are planning red potatoes, romaine and buttercrunch lettuce, as well as snap peas. The current summer list includes, green beans, tomatoes (medium slicers and plum), corno di toro and lunchbox peppers, jalapeño and poblano chiles, patty pan and Mexican gray squash, cantaloupe, watermelon, and Persian cucumbers.

I am also considering some flowers – likely decorative sunflowers, zinnias and maybe a few other varieties.

This is only the initial list. It will grow as we continue our planning.

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Farm Update January 23, 2016

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The warm weather of the last several days has finally awoken some of our plants from their “long winter’s nap.” Thanks for your patience with our production lull.

Along with the changes in the field, we have some changes in personnel at the farm. Gentry, our farm manager is moving on to other endeavors. He has been with us since early December 2014 and helped greatly in the development of the farm and our markets. We wish him the best of luck in the future !

Two new people started a few days ago and one more is on the way on February 1; more about all of them in upcoming newsletters. Those of you who attend the Rillito market will be seeing all of them in rotation as we move into the late winter.

Also, we are now seeking applications for summer interns ñ so if you know any hearty souls who love working in the summer heat (!), send them our way or ask them to check our our ATTRA website internship listing.

With the promise of spring on the horizon, we have been poring over the seed catalogues and planning our summer crops. We will be putting together a summer seed order soon, so if you have any favorite summer vegetables or varieties that you know to grow well, send along your suggestions and they will go in the mix for consideration.

Farm Update January 15, 2016

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As you may know, we have been experiencing some pretty low temperatures out here at the farm. As a result our production has decreased ñ the plants are just not growing very quickly. Hence the baby beets in your shares lately instead of full-sized beets and the recent abundance of greens in your shares. The upshot of this is that our shares will be a bit smaller for the next two weeks and they will continue to comprise primarily greens. Don’t worry, we will take care of you in the weeks to come as the production increases. We have lots of goodies growing – we just can’t hurry them along.

The broccoli heads are growing nicely, as mentioned last week. They grew significantly over the last several days and, if these warmer nights keep coming as predicted for the next week or so, they will soon be ready for harvesting.

The beets are also coming along and will be more than baby-sized within two weeks or so.

I pulled a test carrot yesterday; it was 4 inches long and about the diameter of my little finger, so they will also soon be ready.

Add to that the baby bok choi and an entire bed of spinach seedlings that seem to be the only thing unfazed by the cold, and there are the makings of some delicious normal-valued shares in the very near future. Please bear with us as we squeeze through the remaining few weeks of cold weather !

Farm Update January 8, 2016

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Yesterday afternoon we had a surprise out here at the farm in the form of snow. About an inch accumulated in a little less than an hour. I couldn’t resist the visual pun so I took a few pictures of our snow peas.

It rained off and on all night and the snow was melted this morning. It is still pretty nippy as we are harvesting today.

The broccoli now has small heads; you should be seeing some in your shares within a few weeks.

Our carrots are also growing – very slowly, but they are growing. They will be showing up in your shares within a month or so.

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Farm Update January 6, 2016

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We are back in production after our Year End and Holiday break. Our field looks great – lots of delicious vegetables and greens growing, albeit slowly due to the cold weather.

Our photovoltaic panel expansion project is now complete and is cranking out the electricity as I write this. Your CSA share purchases helped us complete the project ! Thank you for the support.

We are looking forward to this new year and to providing you delicious and healthy food.