When I was a little kid, I used to call grasshoppers hossgrappers. My mom used to pay me a penny a head for them to keep them out of the garden. I'm pretty sure this was my first paying job. I remember spending hours in the garden hunting hossgappers. I know you'll think this sounds Icky but I used to pull the heads off and put them in a coffe can that i carried around. I cab still recall that familar smell of stale coffee and grasshopper guts. I would count out the heads and mother would pay up. When I was seven a dollar was a whole bunch of money and it wasn't too hard too hard to catch a hundred grasshoppers. Life was good then. simple, innocent. We didn't have to worry much about the things that kids have to deal with today. I don't want to sound like some old guy here but life is just lived at a different pace now. When i look back, I can say that gardenening has always been a constant in my life. Everywhere I have lived I have had a garden. It was just the way I was brought up and it was always something i enjoyed. Nowdays I'm a liitle more than a gardner but it's still my roots.
Anyway, I'm drifting here. I've been thinking about grasshoppers lately. I had an e mail from our friends and old mrf interns Shawna and Attila. They have started a farm in Purcerville VA. They are getting ravaged by grasshoppers. Something we don't really have here. Or do we? The other day I was working in the field and I saw a grasshopper! My first instict was to grab it and instanly rip it's head off just as I had done a thousand times before in my youth. For a half second I was seven. I laughed as I was transported to my youth. How did this grasshopper get here and where did it come from? I have seen them here before but it is rare. Please don't tell me we are going to have to deal with them as a pest. They can really eat! But seriously where did it come from? We live on an island. Are the eggs just here lying dormant waiting for the perfect weather conditions such as the ones we have experienced lately? Did they fly here from America. Perhaps a bird ate a pregnant hopper mainland and flew here and shat the eggs out? Weird for sure but hey, havn't you ever seen it rain frogs?
Keep it fresh.
farmer John.
ps. Oh yeah by the way, tomatoes are ripe.
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Thankful for the summer rain we had. Such a great feeling to have warm rain and the smell of wet earth in the summer. That smell always takes me back to my days of growing up in Arizona and the summer monsoons, which are one of two things I miss about the southwest, the other being the Grand Canyon. The ground is so dry right now though you can hardly tell it rained at all. Thankfully I was able to get salad greens sown just the day before and the moisture made them just explode right out of the ground.
We are in a bit of a dirth here right now. This is a little perplexing for me to say the least. We just finished the harvest of broccoli and cauliflower and the heat interfered with germination on the last round of salad greens. peas are starting to wane and the strawberries are taking a break which is normal for this time of year. so we are running a little short on product. The most traditional crops for summer are just a little behind right now such as beans, tomatoes and summer squash. Hopefully we will see some of those things this week. I'm a little bummed right now that we are on the short side. The only thing I can do is get out there and keep planting. It's also important for me to remember that MRF is a year round farm so of course there may be times when we fall short but in the long run we are the premier supplier of quality produce throughout eleven months of the year. In some ways it may even be a good thing? How could that be? Well, one thing I have intentionally done is to delay sowing certain crops by a bit to stagger the availability from the other farmers. For example it may be easier to sell summer squash later in the season when perhaps others are beginning to wane. This also helps the restaurants maintain consistency in offering seasonal produce on their menus. Even though I say I am a bit dissapointed right now, it still amazes me when we go out to harvest just how much we bring in. there is always more out there than meets the eye and I tend to be hyper critical. I Sometimes I forget the cyclical nature of the biz. yes, it's true, I want it all now!
The Farmer,
Juanito
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Well, some of you might laugh and shrug us off on this one but here on the farm we are playing our plants music. There is a cd called Sonic Bloom. I honestly don't know a whole lot about it but basically it's classical music combined with certain tones that plants are proven to respond to. You can laugh at us if you wish. It's one of those things that if you believe in it, it will work. I do have to say the plant health on the farm in general this year is better than I have ever seen. We have been foliar feeding with kelp emulsion which has numerous trace elements in it. We have also been using a product called azomite this year. It comes in a granular form and we combine it with our regular organic fertilizer. Normally, I apply the fertilizer's as I sow using a small side dressing attachment on our Earthway seeder. It lays the fertilizer right in the furrow with the seed. It seems to work great. As for the Azomite, I am sold. I can tell a difference. The main benefit is that Azomite contains numerous trace elements and minerals. If you've been up on what's happening with the soil you will know that vegetables now have less nutrtion than they once did. This de-nutrifrication is caused by a couple of reasons. First, our soils are being depleted by over-production and the heavy use of nitrogen based fertilizers. The second reason is that with the use of the nitrogen., the plants are forced to grow rapidly and simply do not have the time to absorb the minerals from the soil. By using the Azomite I feel that we are at least adding back to the soil what we take out and hopefully a little more. Azomite is derived from volcanic ash from apparently only one known place in the world. Anyway, I like it and will continue to use it.
What else is growing on? Heat lovers! Tomatoes are looking good. we are just starting to see some ripening. In a couple of weeks they should be on in full force. Once again we have alot of space and time dedicated to tomatoes. The past couple of years have been sketchy. We have taken pro-active measures this year based on our previous experience. Hopefully we (and you) will be rewarded handsomly. Summwer squash and beans should be on in the next few days as well. It's all about water right now. We are dumping it on as fast as we can. The pond is going down fast! I would love to see a little rain. The heat is needed and welcomed but it also makes things a little more difficult. It's harder to get salad greens to properly germinate when it's as hot and dry as it has been. We had one entire sowing that failed. It's my fault. With all of the new sites that we are farming there are nuances to each one. Especially with the irrigation. I will be re-sowing those failed beds today and changing the way the drip tapes are laid so the seeds will get as much water as possible. Basically the tapes have to be laid right in the furrow where the seeds are. We then have to come back and re-set the tapes so they do not interfere with plant growth. Just a small learning curve. The bigger problem is that when we have a failure it has the potential to really set us off. We are for all practicle purpose's out of greens right now due to my error. That cost's us money and bruise's the ego more than a little. We are known for having the best greens ever and it's hard to explain why we don't have them. Live and learn farmer, live and learn.
Fall and overwintering crops are going in. We are going big. It's going to be a bountiful year. It's looking to be an epic fruit year too. Lot's of plums!
Take care peeps.
Time to water.
Farmer John
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Happy fourth of July! What a beautiful day. So nice to have a day to work but not have to scramble or be on someone else's schedule. Maybe the ultimate independence. I've been busy sowing new beds and getting the last succession of some things like summer squash and beans into the ground. I've also been getting fall crops in and thinking about the months ahead. i'm not for sure why but I have this little voice in the back of my head that is telling me that this may be a good year to be well prepared and independent from some of the services we take for granted such as ferries and shopping at the grocery store. I'm generally not fear based thinker and i'm certainly not acting on fear now. I'm just enjoying and celebrating my independence in my own fashion. I like being prepared and feeling like I can have some control in my destiny if the shit hits the fan. So yes, we will be rich in beets, carrots, onions and overwintering brassica's. Not to mention the lowly parsnip and the oft forgotten kale.
Suffering from grass polen allergies makes this a hard time of year for me. Fortunately, they were not so bad this year and I can feel them beginning to wane. My energy is returning to normal and I am again excited about being out in the field. From a farmers eye, or from mine at least, this feels like a seasonal change as we move into sowing our fall crops. I can feel the crisp air of the late summer and early fall days and see the bountiful harvests of pumpkins and apples. It recharges me and I am excited for the challenges that lie ahead. Life is always changing. Sometimes seasonally but sometimes change in a greater scope. I'm glad. Stagnation does not work for me.
Yes, I will celebrate independence and meet the new times with open arms and mind.
Choose love,
Farmer John
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I was fortunate to not have to work off the farm for the last couple of days. It allowed me to catch up on some much needed field work. Despite suffering from severe grass polen allergies, I just had to mow. It looks so much better. I have to admit I was getting a bit discouraged with the way things were looking around the home farm. When the grass is overgrown and there are weeds everywhere the farm tends to look uncared for. So with a morning of mowing and a full day of weeding things are starting to look nore like they normally do. In addition we also got the peppers and eggplants planted out in the greenhouse and the drip irrigation installed. I was also able to till and set new beds that are slated to be re-sown today. It's time to put in more greens, beets and carrots. We also brought in a huge harvest of peas. They are coming on so fast I'm sure we'll have another big harvest on Friday. I love it when we can take large quantities of an item to feature at the market. Last week it was carrots, this week it will be peas and hopefully strawberries.
We've had some extra hands this week too and I can't express enough my relief and gratitude. I have been exhausted lately and yesterday gave me just a bit of a breather. I layed down for a little cat nap at about 6:30 and slept right through the night, fully clothed! So much for a wild night of solstice celebrating. I think I needed the rest more than I realized.
Today is harvest day for our commercial accounts. Business is picking up around the island and it directly affects the size of the harvest. We'll have a big day picking, packing and delivering. We are harvesting the first succesion of broccoli today along with greens, carrots, beets, pea shoots, kohlrabi, gailann, scallions and strawberries. The bounty continues!
For those of you who may be interested, we also have the very first certified organic cherries of the season. We are storing them in our walk-in cooler for our friend/grower Bruce Spencer. They arrived yesterday from the Wenatche area. We have about 800lbs in the cooler right now. We'll have that many more coming in for the next few weeks. They will be for sale at the market or you may special order them directly through us here. I think they are around $7.00/lb and boy are they tasty.
Well, It's time to ro;;. I need to get get a good jump on the day here. Happy summer.
Keep well,
John the farmer
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