Category: CSA

The News from Windflower Farm

What’s in the share?

• Assorted tomatoes
• Sweet corn
• Arugula
• Mixed mustard greens
• Radicchio
• Small green cabbages
• Garlic (use soon, will not keep long)
• Sweet peppers
• Red onions

Your fruit share will consist of our organically grown watermelons.

What’s new on the farm?

My nearly new Isuzu truck is still in the garage. The mechanics believe that they have diagnosed the problem and now await the parts. Supply chain problems have prolonged the wait, so we’ll arrive this week in a rental truck. The Uber driver who gave me a ride from the truck repair garage to the truck rental shop turned out to have been a former Yonder Farm employee. I was happy that he spoke well of Pete and his farm team. As an older man he sought the Uber job to get out of the field and into less physically demanding work. Although that part has worked out, it’s been a financial disaster for him. Gig work, he tells me, has not paid well.

In a round-about way my Uber driver introduced me to what might be the first fungicide I’m excited to trial in our Cucurbits. I mentioned my coincidental meeting of his past employee to the Yonder Farm manager when I picked up fruit the next day, which gave us a chance to talk about other topics, one of which was the diseases in our winter squashes. He described a trial he has underway to control diseases in his young apple tree crop. He has been spraying Howler, a beneficial bacterium that has been approved for organic production, and he’s seen results comparable to his conventional fungicides. Downy and Powdery mildews and Alternaria leaf spot, the scourges of organic Cucurbit production, are supposed to be effectively controlled by the product. I don’t like to spray, and have found few materials in the organic tool box worth spraying, but I’d like to improve our Cucurbit production, and I’ll try this one.

Next week’s share will look like this week’s except that Romaine will replace the cabbage, and we’ll add basil to the share. Radicchio will figure in shares soon, too. The fruit share will again be watermelons at some sites and peaches at others.

Have a great week! Ted

The News from Windflower Farm

On Thursday, our (still new) truck experienced difficulties with its electronics and stopped running. We were able to rent a truck in relatively short order and transfer the load, but it made us very late getting to several sites. I am sorry for your inconvenience and thank you for your patience. The truck remains in the shop as of this writing – I’m hoping for good news tomorrow morning. Kage suggests we keep our eyes out for a good truck from the ‘80s – something from the electronics before-times.

What’s in the share?

• Assorted tomatoes
• Beets 
• Sweet peppers
• Sweet corn
• Mixed mustard greens
• Kale
• Swiss chard
• Garlic (Please put on your countertop and eat soon. Our garlic won’t keep long this year)

Your fruit share will consist of 1 quart of plums from Yonder Farm AND 1 cantaloupe from us. Please refrigerate your melon and eat it soon because it won’t keep long. 

What’s new on the farm?

It was another big week here at Windflower Farm, this time for very different reasons.

The tail end of Hurricane Debbie struck on Friday afternoon with straight line winds in the 80-100 mph range. As often happens following heavy rains and wind, the power went out. Jan and Nate hopped on their bikes to investigate a power outage the map indicated was about a mile down the road and came back very upset because our next–door neighbors experienced the brunt force of the wind. At one house, three or four holes were punched through the roof by falling tree branches, a porch was blown off and a barn’s steel roofing was blown off. Dozens of trees were knocked down, taking power lines with it.

At another house, an ancient locust was blown against the roof, crushing a large section and punching a hole. Additionally, three barns lost their roofs, leaving stored hay, equipment, and workshop tools exposed to the elements. The clean-up got underway immediately. Dozens of people showed up, several with heavy equipment. A neighbor used a cherry picker to de-limb the tree, and a relative with a giant excavator removed the trunk. Chain saws and payloaders were put to work by the dozens ofpeople who showed up to help. The rest of us hauled tree limbs out of the way. And by evening’s end, the road and driveways were cleared, and the roofs weretemporarily patched.  

The houses will be repaired in short order. The barn roofs are still under assessment and will take longer to repair. But no one was hurt. Meanwhile, a day later, sitting on my front porch listening to the singing of nearby songbirds and the ongoing work of neighbors using power tools in the distance, I’m feeling grateful for this wonderful rural community that we have become a part of, where neighbors really help neighbors.

Next week, among other things, we’ll send tomatoes, peppers, sweet corn, cabbage, Romaine lettuce, and arugula or a mustard mix.

Have a good week, Ted

The News from Windflower Farm

What’s in the share?

• Assorted tomatoes
• Carrots
• Sweet peppers
• Onions
• Sweet corn
• Arugula or Mustard Mix (choice)
• Kale
• Lettuce

Your fruit share will consist of our own cantaloupes. Our watermelons will be coming along soon.

What’s new on the farm?

It was a big week here at Windflower Farm. On Wednesday, two gentlemen from the Department of Labor were here for one of their regular check-ins, on Thursday it was a Homeland Security investigator, on Friday our organic inspector came to walk through our fields and review all our records. We received a complement for being well organized! And today it was a photographer from FarmAid. Willie Nelson, Dave Mathews and Neil Young will be playing in Saratoga Springs and they wanted photos from a few nearby farms. Wouldn’t they be fun to go see?

We are planting the last of our cucumbers this week, with fingers crossed that downy mildew doesn’t wipe them out before we have something to show for our effort. We are also making our final plantings of broccoli and root crops this week. Field sowings of spinach, arugula, Swiss chard and various mustard greens will continue for another month. The onion harvest is winding down, with relatively good yields. We’ll start harvesting potatoes next week. Roasted with a little salt, a little rosemary and a little olive oil… I can’t wait. 

Next week’s share will likely include garlic, peppers, tomatoes, beets, sweet corn, and a mix of greens.

Have a great week, Ted

The News from Windflower Farm

What’s in the share?

• Assorted tomatoes
• Eggplant
• Onions
• Sweet corn
• Kale
• Lettuce
• Carrots
• Arugula

Insects in corn are usually confined to the tips of the ears. So, here’s my recommendation, which also helps make for a tidy way of dealing with the messy silk and the flag ears: lay the ear out on the cutting board, position all of the flag ears and silk above the ear tip and then chop the ear two or three inches below the tip, placing all of it (plus any worms) in your compost bucket.

We’ve disced under what remains of our turnips and kohlrabi. Thank goodness. And there is a gap in our cucumber and squash successions, so what’s coming? More tomatoes, sweet corn, and lettuce, along with onions and kale. New additions, peppers and garlic, should be in shares next week. Basil will come along soon. Beets and fennel will be back in a couple of weeks, and cucumbers and summer squashes will appear again in about three weeks.  

The fruit share will be blueberries from Yonder Farm.

What’s new on the farm?

Yesterday, while on a bike ride, we took note of the roadside wildflowers in bloom. A partial census: red and white clover, Birdsfoot trefoil, wild blue chicory, Queen Anne’s lace, daisy fleabane, Joe Pye weed, Boneset, cattails, and the invasive purple loosestrife.

I worked in three fields with rye cover crops today, discing in a huge amount of organic matter. The mature seed heads shattered as I drove my equipment across the field, effectively reseeding the crop. Next year, when we plant these fields to vegetables, they should have improved tilth and far fewer weeds.  

Our sweet corn is ready for harvest in the next field over. And on cue, racoons have shown up. To keep them out of the corn, we have installed a pair of fences around the field: an inner fence made of woven wire and an outer fence comprised of four horizontal wires. Both stand just 30 inches tall and both are electrified. This is the only way we have found to keep the little corn-stealing bandits out of the corn, at least all but the Olympic caliber athletes among them.

Have a great week, Ted

The News from Windflower Farm

What’s in the share?

• Assorted tomatoes
• Lettuce
• Kale
• Fennel
• Beets
• Cucumbers
• Zucchini and/or summer squash
• Beans
• Yellow onions
• Broccoli and/or Happy Rich
• The fruit share will be blueberries from Yonder Farm.

What’s new on the farm?

Alternaria, a fungal pathogen, has moved into our cantaloupes. It’s a little like having the Gambino crime family move into the neighborhood. Alternaria plays a mean game. Like the mafia’s money laundering, its protection racket, and its hardball sanitation business, Alternaria has a diversified portfolio: the genus Alternaria goes after virtually every crop on the farm. One species causes leaf spot of cantaloupe, watermelon and cucumber, another causes early blight of potato and tomato, and a third causes purple blotch of onion and leek, to name a few. Fittingly, Top Cop, an elemental copper spray, is the organic growers’ go-to Alternaria remedy. Nate will be on the spray rig tomorrow morning, making our neighborhood safe again.

Have a great week, Ted