farm updates

Farm Update October 29, 2016

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This week we finally removed the shade cloth and the bird netting from the blackberry bed. We will be doing a final weeding and mulching of the bed in preparation for the winter. Our blackberry harvest last summer was a bit disappointing, mostly due to the unseasonable and extremely hot 3 days right at the peak of the bloom. Next year we will use a heavier shadecloth maybe 40% or 50% and will also install an overhead watering line to help lower the temperature and increase the humidity around the blackberry bushes. That should help to substantially increase the yield.

We are also preparing two beds for planting garlic. Our plan is to triple the amount of garlic we plant because it was so popular last summer with our CSA shareholders and in the markets. We will likely plant the cloves next week. This is about as late as we can plant it, but the unseasonably warm temperatures in the long-term forecast should allow the plants to be established before it gets too cold.

If you signed up for a fall/winter CSA share, you will receive an email this weekend with the revised starting dates (starting 13Nov at Rillito and 16Nov at Green Valley) and other pertinent information.

We are still signing up 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.

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the beets are growing quickly!
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butternut ready to pick

Farm Update October 22, 2016

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It has been so warm lately, but we’re not complaining. The lingering end of the warm temperatures is allowing our summer crops to keep producing.

We gambled with some late season slicer tomatoes and it looks like the fates will allow us to harvest some tasty large tomatoes. The vines are loaded with green ones that are just starting to turn, so we’ll happily take the hot weather as long as it lasts.

The warm temperatures are also hastening the ripening of the butternut squash. We have three beds that were planted a week or two apart. The butternuts from the earliest planting are almost ready to pick; the skin is turning from green to tan and is hardening. In the latest bed, the squash are still medium-sized and green. If we don’t get a frost for another month, we will have a much larger harvest of the butternut.

The sweet potatoes that we harvested last week are curing in the pumphouse in high humidity and relatively high temperatures. We had a heater going in the pumphouse most of last night and will run the heater all night tonight. We have some very tasty sweet potatoes on the way!

We are still signing up 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.

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the butternut squash are almost ready to pick !
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our late-season slicing tomatoes are also almost ready to pick

Farm Update October 15, 2016

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We had a 42°F low temperature this morning and a high of 85° yesterday – a 45 degree diurnal temperature difference. It is definitely fall in southeast Arizona.

Today we are harvesting the sweet potatoes. They have been growing since May. The process involves first soaking the bed to soften up the soil (which we did yesterday), then clipping off all the vines at ground level (after this week, no more sweet potato greens until next summer), then digging up the sweet potatoes. The potatoes have to be dug carefully because they are brittle. The skins are also fragile, so they have to be handled pretty gently to avoid damage. We will then brush off the soil and put them in crates for curing.

The curing process optimally occurs at 85 to 90°F and at 90% relative humidity for 5 to 10 days. This heals the cuts and abrasions plus it initiates the creation of the enzymes that sweeten the potatoes. After the initial warm period of the curing process, the potatoes are then stored at about 60° for another six weeks or so which further develops the sugars.

We will have the uncured potatoes for sale in the market. These taste fine and can be used for cooking, but for the sweetest potatoes we will have to wait another couple of months.

We are still signing up 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.

We’ll see you at the markets!

the sweet potato bed
the sweet potato bed

Farm Update October 8, 2016

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We are transitioning to our fall crops, planting apace all kinds of roots (turnips, radishes, beets, rutabagas, parsnips, carrots), cole crops(broccoli, cauliflower) and, of course, greens such as arugula, mizuna, tatsoi, various mustards, spinach, lettuces, kales and collard greens. None of these are ready yet; the first will be some of the greens, then the radishes and turnips. The last fall planting to be ready will be the parsnips in late January.

We will also soon be harvesting two popular fall vegetables that are planted in the summer: sweet potatoes and butternut squash. We will dig a few tens of pounds of sweet potatoes today and take them to the markets this weekend. They will be uncured, but still very good. The bulk of the sweet potato harvest will be cured in the coming weeks and then stored for our CSA and for the fall/winter markets.

We are still signing up 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.

Thank you for supporting organic, sustainable agriculture in southern Arizona.

Newly sprouted ARUGULA !
Newly sprouted ARUGULA !

Farm Update October 1, 2016

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The end of the monsoon delivered nearly an inch of rain at the farm – 0.85″ in the last week. The total rainfall at the farm since late June is 8.01″ – a pretty good rainy season this year.

Lately we have planted two types of beets, onions, carrots, lettuce mix, salad mix and radishes. Today and tomorrow we will get in the parsnips, rutabagas, kales and various greens.

We have started removing the shadecloth from the growing beds in preparation for the fall and winter growing season.

If you have signed up for the fall/winter CSA season, your email address will be added to the next CSA newsletter email distribution list and you will start receiving emails in a few weeks.

As mentioned in earlier newsletters, if you would like to sign up for our next CSA 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.

okra plants full of blooms
okra plants full of blooms
Okra plants full of blooms
watermelons are almost ready

 

Farm Update September 24, 2016

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We have made it though another summer! The autumnal equinox was Thursday and we are looking forward to increasingly cool weather.

The cooler temperatures will provide the right growing conditions for our fall and winter crops like the root vegetables including carrots, beets, parsnips, and rutabagas. We will also have broccoli, cauliflower and a great variety of greens such as kales, mustards, lettuces, among others. Over the next month we will also be harvesting some winter storage crops like the sweet potatoes and butternut squash.

If you are interested in signing up for our next CSA season, we will continue taking payments/reservations for our 16-week fall/winter CSA share program, deliveries for which will begin the last weekend of October and run through the end of February 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.

Please let us know if you are interested in signing up!

squash and watermelon beds
squash and watermelon beds

Farm Update September 17, 2016

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We had a very nice rain event when the remains of Hurricane Newton passed through, receiving 1.34in of soft, gentle rain that soaked in nicely. Since then it rained a couple more times, so we are just below the 30-year average to-date for the monsoon. It is starting to feel like fall with cool mornings, but we are hoping for one more chance at some monsoon rainfall.

As mentioned last week, we are nearing the end of the spring/summer CSA share deliveries – the last deliveries will be September 25 at Rillito and September 28 at Green Valley.

For those of you interested in signing up for the next round, this weekend/week we will begin taking payments/reservations for our 16-week fall/winter CSA share program, deliveries for which will begin the last weekend of October and run through the end of February 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. Please let us know if you are interested in signing up!

Thank you for supporting local, sustainable, organic agriculture in southern Arizona !

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baby butternut squash
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watermelon hiding

Farm Update September 10, 2016

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I hope you had a great holiday weekend. We caught up on some much-needed rest. We did a little work harvesting for our restaurant and store customers, but mainly took it fairly easy for the week.

We are back at it now and working apace to get our fall planting done. We are planting plenty of root vegetables – carrots, parsnips, rutabagas, cippolini onions, Iitoi’s onions, various types of beets, among others. We are also going to put in some fall broccoli, kales, Romaine lettuces, other head lettuces and collard greens, along with some other interesting greens.

As a reminder, we are nearing the end of the spring/summer CSA share deliveries – the last deliveries will be September 25 at Rillito and September 28 at Green Valley.

For those of you interested in signing up for the next round, this weekend/week we will begin taking payments/reservations for our 16-week fall/winter CSA share program, deliveries for which will begin the last weekend of October and run through the end of February 2017. Shares will cost $250 for 16 weekly deliveries. We will have the forms at the markets and also put them up on our website. Please let us know if you are interested in signing up!

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lunchbox peppers
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ripe jalapeños
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purple & white eggplant

Farm Update Aug 27, 2016

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The images in this newsletter are some night driptape irrigation art. As you may know, we use driptape to irrigate our beds. The tape we use has slits every 8 inches that drip water at a slow rate (0.67 gallons per minute per 100 feet of tape). The driptape applies the water right at the ground surface, which helps to minimize evaporation and water wastage. Depending on the particular crop in the bed, we space the tapes at different distances to optimize water delivery to the plants. Some plants occasionally receive topwatering with a hose or sprinklers, depending on the crop, stage of growth and ambient temperature. In June when it is really hot and very dry, we will run sprinklers in the heat of the day to cool down the plants and to create some humidity in the field.

We are starting to plant the fall/winter root crops. We will put in beets, carrots, parsnips, rutabagas, turnips and various onions, including cippolini.

We are also doing some final planting of summer squash, hoping to get in one more crop before it gets too cool.

Our chiles are starting to ripen. We have jalapeños, Sinajuisa (similar to serrano) and a small New Mexico type green/red chile named Jarales. The Sinajuisa and Jarales seeds were obtained from Native Seed/Search; this is the first time we have grown these two chile varieties and we are excited to find out how they taste. We also have a few poblano chile plants – not as many as last year, but we will have a few to sell.

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