The News from Windflower Farm
August greetings from all of us at Windflower Farm.
What’s in your share?
- Lettuce
- Koji on Tuesday, cabbage on Thursday
- Tomatoes
- Sweet corn
- Green beans
- Onions or scallions
- Summer squashes or zucchinis
- Sweet peppers
The share list that I provide at the top of each newsletter is not to be taken verbatim. It’s my educated guess about what should be ready in adequate supply and of a quality that is good enough to send to you that week. But I’m generally making this guess a couple of days ahead of the actual harvest, and it’s harder than you might think to get this right. Heat can cause bolting in virtually all of the greens, and insects can render them inedible overnight. And getting precise counts of eggplants or peppers or cucumbers is just not practical. And so, if we run out of the eggplants we promised, we might substitute peppers or cucumbers or cabbage. They say that a little mystery is good for a relationship.
What’s new on the farm?
A light rain is falling as I write this. The greens seeder is mounted on the John Deere and I’d like to sow a round of arugula, chard, kale and cilantro into beds I prepared yesterday. Our greens production has suffered lately, and I’m hoping to get it back on track. It has been so dry that a little rain won’t be a problem for the seeder. In fact, it has been so hot and dry that It’s been difficult to get some of our crops established. Most vegetables seeds, and all of the seeds that produce greens, are small, and they generally can’t be seeded more than half an inch deep. And evaporative water loss from the top half inch of soil has been a big problem for us this year. A strategy that has proven successful in getting our carrots established (after two previous attempts) has now become common practice here. Immediately after seeding, we set up runs of micro-sprinklers, called Mini-Wobblers, along the entire length of the new planting and run them for an hour every other day until the crop comes up. The sprinklers come from a company that got its start in Florida, where they know how to deal with heat. According to the brochure, “they replicate a light summer rain shower and keep the seeds bathed in moisture throughout their germination and emergence.” So, once I manage to get these greens seeded, I’ll ask the guys to help me move the Mini-Wobblers into place, and I’ll leave them there until I see nice little rows of greens getting off to a good start.
Have a great week, Ted
Central Brooklyn CSA 