Hi all. Well, judging by the calendar I guess we’ve hit summer. All things on the farm are moving along despite the disruptions caused by the weather. The current, frequent thunderstorm activity has caused a little bit more of a realignment in the order of planting, as well as some other problems, and has currently pushed parts of the schedule about 2 1/2 to 3 weeks behind “normal”. It’s just part and parcel of dealing with Mother Nature.
Additional crops have been planted this week, with all the Winter Squash and most all of the Pumpkins now in the ground. Additional plantings of Lettuce, Herbs, and other frequent rotation crops also continued. The drawback to the recent weather is not just having to reschedule, but also how it is affecting the plants that are already in the ground. Early plantings of Lettuce, Broccoli, and Cauliflower are all acting as strangely as they have during other past odd weather times, either bolting directly to flower, or taking an inordinately long time to pass mid-growth stage. Zucchini also seem to be suffering a bit of the same issue, so they will also not be ready for this week. I’m doing what I can to keep things moving along, but wanted to make people aware that there will be some randomness to availability of a number of crops. Gladiolus have also wound up being affected, and will probably be a bit later than I would like them to be, while the sunflowers, having germinated at a lower than expected rate, seem to be growing on schedule. So overall, this season will see some shortages, and general lack of availability.
As far as the stuff I can get from other farms, there’s good, bad, and expected news. The bad – Local Strawberries have been devastated by the daily rain. None of the six farms I get berries from had any for sale, and said that they didn’t think there would be any more for wholesale sale this season. Canadian Strawberries, like I had last year, will be available in the next week or two. The expected – Local Corn is not ready yet, at least for wholesale. The hope is that it will be ready for next week. There may be some farms that have small amounts ready, but I’d expect it to be fairly small sized. The good – Local Raspberries are available this week.
The chickens are doing well and continue to lay increasingly larger eggs. I’m getting about 4 1/2 dozen eggs per day and have been selling out consistently. I apologize to those who have had trouble getting eggs so far, but there seem to be many more people around than I had anticipated when I ordered in the chickens. I’m also still waiting on notice to go pick up the first batch of meat chickens, which should happen shortly.
Other than all that, things on the farm just keep chugging along. I’m not sure what this weekend will bring, given the holiday, though I am taking my best guess, so hopefully I won’t be too far off. Let’s all hope that the weather holds out and it will be nice, sunny, and not too hot or humid. I want to thank all those who came by this week for your support of the farm. Hope you all have a great week.