What’s up on the farm?
Precipitation in the past month: Rain: 1.48" (not nearly enough!)
Happy Memorial Day weekend from the farm and heartfelt thanks to all those who have forged the path before us.
It's been a busy and productive month here as the full crew is now on board and we are working fast and furious! May is filled with a flurry of field prep, transplanting, sowing, harvesting and cultivating. The bulk of the main season crops are now in the ground and growing quite well thanks to our irrigation system.
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Then the next day it was melons, okra, roselle and flowers plus sowing winter squash seed. Everything transplanted over those two days had to be hand watered in which actually took longer than planting them. Some of the recent transplants were a little offended to move from their lovely protected high tunnel locations out to dry, hot windy fields, but most seems to be acclimating well enough as long as we keep the irrigation lines running.
We had just enough rain early in the month to pop most of our seeded crops including the best stands of beans, popcorn and edamame that we've had. The potatoes came up so fast we almost missed our window to flame weed them and they put on enough growth that we have already hilled them once. Even the deer and rabbits seems to be pitching in a bit this year and only taste-testing a few plants here and there instead of wiping out hundreds of row feet of plants in one night! Much appreciated!!
Now the all too familiar mantra, we need rain! The average total rainfall for our area for April and May is 8.10" we've had a total of 2.60". While we are not alone and we are certainly not the driest part of the state, it doesn't change the fact that this is an alarming way to start the season. So if you have a raindance to offer, we are gladly accepting!