farm updates – Page 5 – SouthWinds Farm

Farm Update Janurary 28, 2017

January 28, 2017January 28, 2017swfupdatesLeave a comment

The next few Saturdays (starting 28Jan) we will be completing the construction of our high tunnel greenhouse. We will start around 8a and work until around 4p. If you are interested in volunteering with the construction, please let me know.

It has been a week of chilly mornings – lows in the low 20s and one morning in the high teens. Consequently the plants are growing slowly and we won’t have any salad mix at the markets this week. We have two beds growing, though, and if we get the predicted warm weather next week, we should have plenty to sell in a week or two.

All week there has been a friendly roadrunner hanging around the farm. It will come up quite close to us if we hold still long enough.

Our first succession of broccoli plants all have heads now, as is the cauliflower and broccoli raab; we should have these at the markets. The parsnips are finally getting decent-sized roots. These were planted in September and take about 120 days to mature. We are really excited to have these available – looks like about 2 weeks until the first ones are large enough to harvest.

Thanks again supporting sustainable agriculture in southeastern AZ !

img_1115_napacabbage-copy — napa cabbage

img_1113_hakureiturnips-copy — hakurei turnips

Farm Update January 21, 2017

January 21, 2017January 21, 2017swfupdatesLeave a comment

Another weekend and another winter storm. The wind blew through here at gale force around 2am this morning. Some minor damage occurred in our field, a few broccoli leaves broke off, some of the rowcovers blew off and many of the supporting hoops are bent a little, but nothing major. We had a little snow blowing around late in the evening mixed in with the rain, but no snow accumulated.

As a reminder, the delivery this weekend marks the beginning of the second half of our winter CSA season and the second half payment is due for those shareholders who chose to pay in 2 installments. Thank you for the half-season payments already received.

We’ll see you at the markets!

img_1092_winterstormclosinginonthewhetstones-copy — Winter storm closing in on the Whetstones

Farm Update January 14, 2017

January 14, 2017swfupdatesLeave a comment

We are harvesting rapidly this morning, trying to stay ahead of the rain predicted to start this afternoon. I hope the rain doesn’t keep our customers away from the farmers’ market. We will be there!

On Thursday we planted many Iitoi’s onion bulbs, so you should be seeing them in the markets in a couple months. We haven’t had them in awhile, so I will be excited to have them available again.

We are seeing a lot of javalina activity at the farm. It started about a month ago and has been increasing. They can’t get into our field because it is fenced, but they have been visiting every night and last night they knocked over one trash barrel and scattered trash everywhere. It is definitely time for a more secure trash can.

img_1077_hakurei-copy — next succession of hakurei almost ready

img_1078_broccoliheads-copy — broccoli starting to form heads

img_1079_redrussiankale-copy — red russian kale

Farm Update January 7, 2017

January 7, 2017swfupdates2 Comments

Happy New Year !

As I write this, I can hear the wind picking up a bit. It is a blustery chilly day out here, but there is plenty of sunshine and it is warm in lee areas.

Our crops grew nicely during our market and CSA hiatus; we have lots of variety to take to the markets. Within a few weeks we will have rutabagas, parsnips, collard greens and broccoli raab available and in the CSA shares. We also have been planting during the break and have several new beds of vegetables on the way.

As you may know this is the time of year that seed catalogs start to appear in our mailboxes. Of course we have been poring over the pages and thinking about our late winter, spring and early summer planting. Please let us know if you have a favorite vegetable or variety that you would like us to grow and we will put it on the wishlist along with everything else. We don’t guarantee that we will grow everything requested, but nearly every season we end up adding something interesting that is suggested by our customers and CSA shareholders.

During end-of-the-year break, two of our interns moved on as planned. Thank you Maryanne and Cameron for you help last fall! Two more interns arrived yesterday. We are back to a crew of 4 (Whitney, Drew, Bobby and Justin), so we are getting a lot done on the farm. You will have a chance to meet everyone as they begin working at our farm stand in the markets in the coming weeks.

img_1061_-spigariello-copy — spigariello

img_1060_lacinatokale-copy — lacinato kale

Farm Update December 17, 2016

December 17, 2016swfupdatesLeave a comment

What a difference a couple of days makes! Two days ago our high was 82° and this morning we are seeing precipitation in the form of little snow pellets. A howling wind came through early this morning ahead of the cold front and flattened many of our low-tunnel hoops. After the harvest today, we will be fixing the hoops and doubling up the rowcovers in anticipation of a 20° low temperature tonight.

The markets this weekend and next Wednesday will be the last ones for us for two weeks. We will not be at Rillito on Christmas nor New Year’s Day. Likewise we will not be in Green Valley the Wednesday between those two holidays nor the Wednesday after New Years.

We hope you have some fun and relaxing holidays!

Thank you for your support this past year and we look forward to providing you delicious vegetables in the New Year!

img_1018-copy — double rainbow over the field yesterday morning

Farm Update December 10, 2016

December 10, 2016swfupdatesLeave a comment

We have been transplanting many seedlings the last few days in the waning days of fall. These transplants include fennel, red Russian kale, red cabbage, cauliflower, collards, kohlrabi, and broccoli raab, among others. These will be harvested in the months to come.

Soon our high tunnel will be complete and we will be able to plant out the beds inside it, which will improve our productivity of greens in the winter.

We will see you at the markets!

img_1011-copy

img_1010-copy

Farm Update December 3, 2016

December 3, 2016swfupdatesLeave a comment

The cold has finally completely shut down the summer crops. The 16° low temperature on Wednesday morning froze all the remaining summer plants.

Yesterday we cleared all the trellises from the field. We use cattle panels secured to t-posts to trellis cucumbers, chiles, peppers, tomatoes and the mouse melons. We removed the wires holding the cattle panels to the posts, stacked out the panels against the field perimeter fence, pulled up the posts and stacked them as well. The field is a lot different now, especially the middle terrace where the trellises were.

The winter crops are under double row covers now. This makes more work for us as we uncover all the beds in the morning after it warms up to allow the sun to shine on the plants, then cover everything back up in the mid-afternoon. This traps in some heat for the night and also protects the plants from the freezing temperatures.

Farm Update November 26, 2016

November 26, 2016December 3, 2016swfupdatesLeave a comment

I hope you had a great Thanksgiving and that the rest of your holiday weekend is relaxing.

We will NOT be at the Rillito market this Sunday (November 27) and there will be no CSA share distribution at that market.

We WILL be at the Green Valley market next Wednesday (November 30) and there will be a CSA share distribution in Green Valley. I have not determined the share content yet, so it will be a surprise.

Farm Update November 12, 2016

November 12, 2016swfupdatesLeave a comment

This season you will see some new and interesting crops/varieties that we are excited to grow for you. Parsnips and rutabagas are two new root crops that will be ready in a few months. We will also have broccoli raab and Romanesco cauliflower this season.

At the markets this week we will have a mix of summer and fall/winter vegetables. The transition from summer to fall/winter crops will depend on when the first freeze hits. The average first freeze in this part of the San Pedro Valley is Halloween, so it could come at any time now. The last two years it occurred on November 2. We have had a warm fall, so it might be a week or two before the cold takes our our remaining summer crops. The cool weather is already shutting down some of them – the chiles and peppers are nearly done; the okra plants will come out of the bed today; the tomatoes are really slowing down; the cucumbers are done for the season.

The Hakurei turnips and the radishes were the first of our cool-season vegetables to be harvested. Soon to follow are the carrots and beets. We will harvest the butternut squash sometime within the next few weeks.

Thank you for supporting local, organic, sustainable agriculture.

img_0949_sweetpotatoes-copy — sweet potatoes

Farm Update November 5, 2016

November 5, 2016November 12, 2016swfupdatesLeave a comment

We are finally feeling some cool fall temperatures in the early morning. The afternoons the last few days have yielded some very pleasant working conditions.

Our fall crops are growing nicely in these conditions. As you can see in the image, the Hakurei turnips are ready for harvesting. We will have them in the markets for months now.

The spinach seedlings are up; our hardworking interns thinned them yesterday afternoon. The parsnips and rutabaga plants have sprouted; we completed the thinning and infill planting yesterday as well. The carrots have some very small, pale and thin roots starting to develop. The largest beet tops are about 8in tall and some of the beetroots are at the baby size.

Seasonality is also taking away some of the tastes we have been enjoying as the summer crops slowly fade. There will be no more of the Suyo Long Cucumbers that we have been eating for months. We’ll see them again next summer. The chiles are finally slowing down, too.

We will have the Tohono O’Odham yellow watermelons for awhile, though. When the frosts come, we will do a salvage harvest and keep the ripe ones until they sell out. The okra plants are still cranking, as are the sweet peppers, tomatoes, eggplant and mousemelons.

I hope the frost holds off a little while longer, although I won’t be sad to see the end of the grasshoppers, harlequin bugs and cucumber beetles after the first few hard freezes. The last two years the first hard freeze happened on November 2 and then it was warm for a few more weeks.

We have room for a few more CSA shareholders. If you would like to sign up for the next season, we will continue taking payments/reservations for our 16-week fall/winter CSA share program, deliveries for which will begin the middle of November and run through the middle of March 2017. Shares will cost $250 for 16 weekly deliveries.

We will have the forms at the markets this weekend, and they are also available on our website, here.