In this update:
1. Annual mid-summer crop assessment
2. Notes about U-pick (harvest only what’s on the list)
3. Erick and Wendy on vacation next week
4. Next week’s kids' activity
5. Animal Report
6. Pumpkin Tour registrations
7. Farm chatter
1. Annual mid-summer crop assessment
Here’s a little update of some this year’s crops:
Tomatoes
In general, things are going very well. We had a strong fruit set in June and that fruit is growing and starting to ripen. We have had a little “sun burning” of some early fruit, which is surprising since we haven’t had that before, and this year we haven’t had as much sun as usual. We’ve also had a few lower tomatoes nibbled on by a duck. But losses and damage are small this year, and I think we can expect a great harvest in August and September. This year we are trialing 25 varieties we haven’t tried before. Some of them are real duds, but some are extraordinary. We’re going to be doing some taste testing in the barn to try to get a consensus on the quality of these new varieties. As you probably know, all the tomatoes we grow (with the exception of the Sun Gold cherries that we were pestered into growing this year) are heirlooms. Heirlooms are enjoying a resurgence in farmers’ markets this year, with the price at $4.50/pound! Julie took a few to market last Saturday, and sold out quickly!
Potatoes
Some of the potatoes are just now starting to die back. They could be harvested soon, and we’ll probably do a small harvest in the next couple of weeks. I’ve been looking for a used potato digger for some time now and finally heard of one in Eastern Washington. It was originally a horse drawn digger, but in the 1950’s it was converted so a tractor could pull it instead of a horse. It hasn’t been used in a lot of years, but we’re looking forward to giving it a try!
Strawberries
This has been an unusual year for strawberries. Usually we get a big bunch of them in early June, but this year it didn’t happen. The very rainy spring was, I think, mostly to blame. We also had problems with slugs. They (along with deer) love strawberries, and they were really, really bad this year. You’ve all noticed that we are running the chickens between the 1st and 2nd year strawberries. I think that is helping a lot with the slug problems. I’m still expecting a lot of strawberries coming up.
Lettuce
We had a little set-back last week when an elk apparently swam across the river and devoured 540 lettuces! I hope he or she got a belly ache for being so gluttonous! Anyway, we may run short of lettuce heads in the next couple of weeks. We’re scrambling to get more planted, but it takes time. You have probably noticed on a couple of occasions we have offered a lettuce mix (with greens). I’m curious about how you’ll all like the mix. If you have a feeling one way or another, please send us a note (jubileefarm@hotmail.com).
Carrots
We’ve been holding off a bit on harvesting the second rotation of carrots. We had the “baby carrots” earlier, and we’d like to see these size up a bit more. We have three more rotations in the ground, and we’ll do two more rotations before fall.
Watermelons and Cantaloupe
Melons seem to be doing well, even though it was wet this spring. Tonight Wendy and I were setting an irrigation line along side our first rotation of cantaloupe and we saw a lot of fruit—some of it quite large. That made us take a look at the watermelons. A few of them are as big as a softball already, but most are much smaller. That’s one of the problems with growing watermelons; you always have some precocious ones that ripen ahead of the others. Everyone knows how hard it is to tell a ripe melon, so very often those early ones don’t get detected. When we finally harvest them, it’s too late—which is why you sometimes get overripe melons (along with general human error!). It’s too early to say if we are getting a large, medium, or small fruit set. But we do have a lot of plants—more than ever before. We also have our trial plot of 25 new varieties, which, I’m sure, will yield some interesting results.
Peppers and Eggplants
Most of you remember the great pepper debacle of last season—our two pepper houses took turns blowing down throughout the season. This year we combined the two into one, and put it on an east/west axis, like all the other houses, and it seems to be doing better. The peppers in the house are doing great, and we’re expecting a lot of great peppers from them!
Eggplants have always been a problem for us. The first couple of years, we had lots and thinking they were easy I never thought about why they did so well. The last few years the fruit have been few and far between. This year we planted (once again) both the Asian (long thin) type and the “bell” type. But we also planted two dozen trial varieties. We’re hoping to find some variety that will ripen in our climate. We also put t-tape under the plastic we grow them through this year, so we can drip-irrigate them. Maybe they haven’t had enough water in the last few years. We also covered them with perforated plastic “tents” this spring, and that seeded to give them a big jump in size, anyway. We’ll hope for the best.
Basil
We’re all counting the days. I can’t tell you exactly how many, but there’s still a few to go. The basil is now about three inches tall. We have very painstakingly finished the first weeding, and are about to think about the second. The first weeding of basil is a killer. You have to weed while the basil is still tiny (less than an inch), but it takes so long for it to get to that stage, that there are usually a lot of weeds. Fortunately, as I reminded the work shares who were weeding the basil with me, there is only one “first weeding” per season. The second is no picnic, but compared to the first it’s a breeze. Anyway, all our efforts will be worth it when it’s ready. We planted some fun new varieties this year, that I’m sure you’re going to enjoy (and some of the old standbys too!).
I notice I’ve only gotten through ten items, and I’m already on page three. I think I’ll skip the update on the apples, artichokes, winter squashes, grapes, fennel, dill, cucumbers, corn, and all the rest. But it’s all there, and coming along.
2.
Notes about U-pick
We’ve got a lot of u-pick going on this year, and hopefully you are all getting the idea on how to harvest various items. We have placed together the sorrel, chives, borage, and nasturtiums (in front of the south-most greenhouse) and just a couple of rows over is the parsley and cutting celery (the cutting celery is still too small to cut, but it is in the same row as the parsley, and we’ll let you know when you can start cutting).
The sorrel, chives, parsley, and cutting celery are all harvested exactly the same way. Hold on to an entire bunch of sorrel, chives, parsley or cutting celery and cut at about three inches from the ground. I know this sounds brutal, but the plants will come back strong, and this is the best way to harvest. Our plan is to grow these items and have them available as you may need them. So far, supply has kept up with demand, which is what we expected.
With editable flowers—borage and nasturtiums—you should just remove the flower from the stems.
The rest of the u-pick seems to be going well. Remember that if we have three beds of beans that go clear to the row, most people harvest the plants right next to the blue barrel. But the beds go all the way to the paved road! The ends of the rows are loaded, and that’s where the yellow beans are. You would do well to walk back and check that area out.
3.
Erick and Wendy on Vacation next week.
It’s true. Sunday morning Wendy and I will be using up some of those frequent flyer miles (the only “benefit” of being self-employed and keeping one’s business records via monthly charge card statements!) and flying to Alaska. We’ll visit Naknek, my old stomping grounds, then go to Katmai National Park and camp out at the infamous “bear-bait” campground. A friend who has camped there often offered advice and the remains of his shredded tent. He made the mistake of camping there early in the season when the grizzlies were still ravenous. Late in the season (now) they’re just playful.
From Katmai we’re going (hopefully) to Homer to visit with my 90 year old uncle who homesteaded there in the late 1930’s.
So, what’s happening on the farm next week? Well, Jacob and Francisco will be in charge. There’s a lot of food in the fields, and I’m sure they’ll do just fine in our absence. Julie will be here, which will keep things on an even keel.
4.
Next week’s kids' activity
Well, Jacob has magnanimously agreed to do the kids' activity during our absence. We’re not quite sure what he’ll do, but it will probably be a nice change from farmer Erick and farmer Wendy!!
5.
Animal Report
I’m sure you’ll all be happy to know all the chickens in the Egg Mobile have now learned to walk the gangplank at the end of the day and take their quarters in the Palace. This is the biggest relief since we toilet trained our last child! And the older “batch” of chickens (bard Rocks) is starting to lay eggs. Yesterday we had 21 eggs from 40 hens. It will be another couple of months until the next batch starts laying, but then we’ll see a marked increase in egg production.
As many of you saw in last week’s “kids' activity,” the cows are doing well and getting much, much larger. They seem to be very satisfied with their routine of getting moved each day to a new “salad bar,” and look very healthy and clean. We mow their pastures after they move on to help spread manure and to clip the tops of whatever they don’t eat: there’s no need to let things go to seed that the cows don’t like. They always enjoy being moved, and when we show up to get their new fence set up they come running!
6.
Pumpkin Tour Registrations
Starting Monday (August 1st) we’ll begin taking registrations for Fall Harvest and Pumpkin Tours. The Harvest Tours are held in September and the Pumpkin Tours in October. If any of you would like to get spots while they are still available, please give us a call at 425-222-4558. We don’t take any calls until the first, but members get a few days head start at registration, so give a call and let us know. We’ll return calls in the order they came in. Be sure to let us know in your message that you are a member—especially if you call before the 1st.
7.
Farm Chatter
After a cool and wet start to summer, this last week has been a scorcher. Every day this week has been at least 95 degrees. But most of our plants are larger now, and can take the heat.
I am trying to get back to this update at 1:00 AM on Sunday morning. Wen and I are leaving in less than three hours for the airport, and I still have some other things to do (like “don’t forget to shut down the tractor that is now driving the irrigation pump!”).
It’s hard for us to leave, even for a week. No matter what, there are always those things we just “need” to get done before we go. I had hoped to tell you all about the adventures we’ve had with the combine these last few days, but I just don’t have time. I also had hoped to share some thoughts on one of my favorite topics: things which a CSA and a supermarket do NOT have in common. But I don’t even have time or energy for that. Another time. Until then, please be patient with Julie and Jacob in our absence. I know they can get by without us, but, as I say, leaving is hard.
Erick and Wendy