7/15 This Week On the Farm
This week on the farm has been absolutely beautiful. The sun has been shining, flowers are growing, and freshly tilled earth shows us all of the progress we are making to control the weeds.
Tyler’s parents returned from their week up north and Don is back in full swing operating the rototiller and the tractor.
We started this week by cleaning up the weeds around the tomatoes so we can keep up on the copper sulfate application to prevent late blight. Tyler picked Colorado Potato Beetles off of the eggplant plants. CPB like to eat fresh growth, and since the potato plants are slowing down on above ground growth they have moved to eggplants which are a close relative of potatoes.
On Tuesday Tyler and Don applied Chickety Doo Doo, an organic fertilizer made from chicken droppings, to the sweet corn plants which were looking a little yellow. Yellowing is a sign of nitrogen deficiency, so we added a high nitrogen fertilizer to get them back to where they should be. Our first plantings are starting to tassel, which means sweet corn should be coming soon now. Unlike some other farms, we didn’t plant our corn as early as we could have. Being our first year in business, we couldn’t take the risk of all of our corn being destroyed by a late frost. Be patient, you will be getting corn from us and until then, support other local farmers who have road side stands out.
We have also tied up the cauliflower leaves to keep the curd, or the part that you eat, white. If it gets exposed to sunlight, it turns yellow.
This week we will be planting a crop cover in the roads between fields and in areas of the fields where nothing was planted or where we have pulled out plants that are done producing for the year. This will prevent erosion of the soil and make it easier to wheel or new wheel barrow to the compost pile.
In other news, we took Wash to get his second round of puppy shots and were told that he gained 10 lbs in a month (We were told that he needed to gain at least 5 lbs since he was somewhat underweight). I maintain that most of it is muscle since he is a frisbee/ball chasing powerhouse. If you come out to the farm this Saturday for our open house, he will be very happy to meet you.
Remember to R.S.V.P. to our open house/pickling party by Friday July 16.