Shifting Seasons
The turning of planting to growing
Summer solstice rapidly approaches, and our long season crops are officially planting. A huge wave has rolled through our season. Having caught the ride we are paddling back out for the next one.
Now is the season of upkeep and maintenance compared to the push of planting. While we are constantly turning old crops in and putting new ones out, the pace is different. Our crew is accustomed to the weekly rhythm and needs less guidance on harvest. Focus is on maintaining momentum and doing our best to stay out of the weeds rather than layout new crops.
Mowing, weed whacking, and cultivating take the place of nursery work and planting. The farm looks like a jungle at the moment but will soon transform into the garden it is meant to be. Greenhouse crops like tomatoes are ripening and we anticipate the first rounds of cherry tomatoes and slicers soon. Cucumbers, a notoriously difficult crop, are making headway but now are facing pest pressure from cucumber beetles.
The garlic has been weeded, an incredibly laborious process that involved maybe 100 hours of total labor. They are producing scapes, available this week, which means harvest is right around the corner marking the first harvest of our storage crops. I look forward to pulling the garlic not only to uncover the mysterious heads and see the crop, but to plant a round of late season root crops and fall greens.
Lettuce has been hitting, and our salad is gracing plates at several local restaurants. The heads are large, lofty, and succulent. Our kale and chard are growing strong making copious bunches for our Farm Stand and the farmers markets. A small round of salad turnips turned out hundreds of bunches from a small area, making this possibly our most productive crop.
Peas are in full swing! One of my favorite crops, our larger main season peas have its first set of pods with copious flowers above. We will be picking on Wednesday for the Farm Stand and have more available for our weekend markets. A blessing of summer rains has made the pods fat and juicy.
It seems we will continue the growing season with a large portion of our field underwater. Even after a week of high temps groundwater continues to flow through crops of carrots, corn, beets, and radish. There is seemingly little we can do at this point beside wait and hopefully plant greens this fall.
The bog will affect the quantity of winter storage carrots we can plant this season as the field is cut in half. A bummer, but at least we will be able to attempt a planting above the flood area.
This week we are welcoming fruit from the Western Slope in the Farm Stand. Cherries and organic apricots from our friends at Rancho Durazno will be available this week and next. Peaches are surely right around the corner. I joke that the reselling of fruit is really just to prop up my own fruit habit but turns out a two year old can eat more fruit than a grown man!
We look forward to serving you delicious veggies this week. Thanks Folks!
Farm Stand Hours- WED-SUN 9am-6pm!
Larimer County Farmers Market, Saturday 9-1
Lafayette Farmers Market, Sunday 9-1
Folks Farm Harvest List
Greens- Hearts and Souls Salad Mix, head lettuce, gem lettuce, kale, chard
Roots- Hakurei Turnips, green garlic
Vegetables- Sugar Snap Peas, rhubarb,
Herbs- Parsley, mint, thyme, oregano, sage
Oh Yum! Here we are in Saskatchewan, having the worst trouble just getting to the garden. It needs cleaning out and we have to get potatoes in ahead of a supposed big rain this weekend, or we will lose our season. It's a push when we have physical limitations and too many interruptions that are an immediate crisis. Like the truck needing repairs, parts having to be ordered, and needing friends to give us rides to things we need!
Loved hearing about your spring successes! I have a thought about all that garlic weeding. I only grow 125 heads of garlic, but the method that was taught to me by the locals and has always worked (for decades) is that when I plant I let the bed get rained on once or twice, then I cover it with a couple inches of local hay. This prevents the frost heaving, holds in moisture, and most importantly, I never have to weed one bit. I was cautioned against using straw because we don't have cereal crops around here and that could bring in non local invasive weeds. Fall leaves will blow away so that doesn't work. But the hay from my neighbors works great and even though it's full of seed heads, they don't have a chance to grow because . . . the bed is mulched :) On our new market farm (which I'm writing about on aboutthefarm.substack.com/ -- connecting older land owners with young farmers to make everyone's dreams come true) the farmers are now growing over 1K heads of garlic using this method and it's working. No weeding. I'm figuring you must have mulched, so maybe the trick is to mulch before the plants come up so that there are no gaps? Just wanted to share in case any of this is helpful--I know you're a very experienced grower, and I'd love to hear more about how you're doing your garlic.