Soggy Harvest
As this letter is being put together, we are in a flood watch until mid-week. Luckily, yesterday for our Pumpkin Pick Event, we had a much needed dry day. We had families come out to the farm all day long to pick their pumpkins, visit with the animals on pasture, enjoy the fall colors, and have conversations with their farmers and other CSA supporters. Thank you to everyone who took time to make the trip to We Grow. We appreciate it.
Unfortunately, the wet weather we are getting now is arguably the worst time to get rain in excess in regards to farming. We deal with wet spells throughout the growing season by making adjustments like raising the beds size, increasing organic matter, ceasing irrigation, etc. But this fall, there are not enough heat or daylight hours to dry out between rains and the soil has become increasingly waterlogged making it impossible to get in and harvest.
Many farms in our circle are dealing with the inability to drive a tractor into a field to begin a harvest. This impacts more than vegetable operations. Those with corn and soybeans or small grains need to be able to drive into their fields without sinking into the mud and getting stuck just as importantly as us. The looming factor is hard frost. If we don’t get those crops out before Thursdays overnight low near 20, those potatoes still in the ground will be damaged and probably left in the field. It will be a tricky balance to figure out what we can get harvested and what we chalk up as a loss.
On Thursday last week, we had a nice weather day. It gave us an opportunity to visit our friends at Red Door Family Farm. Much like us, they had some weed issues growing carrots in seasons past so this season they tried some new cultural techniques and hit a home run. With more carrots than they can possibly ever use or harvest alone, they invited us over for a work day. With Susan joining our crew, we spent the day working in Red Door’s beautiful carrot field. In exchange we have a bounty of orange roots in our cooler for our members and customers to enjoy the rest of the season. This cooperative effort has us appreciating our farm connections more than ever.
Seeing orange spots,
