August 14th 2008

Dear Friends,

I’m looking out at the farm today and seeing things starting to dry out. Hallelujah! What is this strange color in the sky? Is is blue? Is it possible that the low pressure system that’s been hanging out around Labrador is moving on and giving us our summer back?? That remains to be seen. What we do know is we have one day of sun and this makes us and the plants really happy! We are taking this opportunity to get into our fields with equipment for the first time in a little while and begin to clean things up that we are done harvesting and plant a fall cover crop. Cover crops are a big part of our soil building program here on the farm. There are several benefits we enjoy from these amazing plants. First and foremost they build soil organic matter increasing the nutrient and water holding capacity of the soil (hmm.. water holding capacity not so important this year but very important in drier years). Cover crops are stellar at preventing soil erosion. Having a thickly seeded established cover prevents soil from blowing or washing away in the field thanks to the amazing root structure of these plants. Last but certainly not least cover crops provide weed suppression when cash crops are not being grown. As we’ve always said weeds are the biggest struggle for an organic farm and cover crops can play an integral role in diminishing weed populations over time by smothering out weeds and not allowing them to go to seed.

So what are these plants I speak so fondly of?? My favorite, for starters, is mammoth red clover. In addition to being an excellent ground cover. Clover has the added benefit of fixing nitrogen from the air into the soil. Clover is a legume (like beans and peas) and through the help of bacteria called rhizobia the plant is able to remove nitrogen gas from the air and convert it into a form that plants can use. Through the use of nitrogen fixing cover crops like clover we are able to cut the amount of fertilizer we use on the farm which is beneficial to the soil and to our finances. Many organic farms design their fertility program around feeding the soil and not just feeding the cash crop you are growing like many conventional farms do. Cover crops are all about feeding the soil and promoting the health of the overall farm system. Can you tell how much we like cover crops??? If you need more convincing… our cat’s name is Clover.

Some other common cover crops we use on the farm are winter rye, oats, buckwheat, and field peas which all have their own niche in our cover cropping scheme. So in the next few weeks you should see fields that were once broccoli, early flowers, early beans, herbs, and peas transformed into a sea of tiny green shoots standing at attention and ready to go to work for the soil.

On behalf of the farm crew

Your Farmers,

Meghan and Rob

CROP UPDATE

While things seem to be drying out. We are starting to see the effect all that rain had on some of our fall crops. Most notably we’ve found sections of Phytophthora infected plants (a crop disease) in our winter squash, potatoes, and tomatoes. There is little we can do about this as organic farmers. In the winter squash it looks as if a bomb hit one part of the field. In an attempt to stop the spread we’ll rouge out all diseased plants and some of the unaffected plants and create a quarantine. If the weather cooperates this can stop the spread but if it keeps raining our efforts could be for not because the spores spread in flowing water. In the potatoes and tomatoes the main effect this will have is a reduction in the yield. The potato plants died prematurely and so did not produce as many tubers as normal (phytophthora is what caused the Irish potato famine). We’ll keep you updated on how the battle goes but suffice to say it has been a challenging year.

U-PICK

Open everyday Daylight hours.

Beans still going strong and more coming on! time to freeze or make some dilly beans.

Flowers the sunflowers are really peaking you may want to bring some clippers from home to harvest them as they can be tough.

Herbs

Cherry tomatoes We grow varieties that are not only red but orange as well !! our U-pick tomatoes seem to be fairing the weather better than some other tomatoes, thankfully. The best way for us to help keep the plants survive a little longeris to only pick in them when the plants are dry.

This Saturday is a second try for our first potluck of the season !!

Saturday the 16th at 5:30 we will be at the farm.

Come and join us and bring a dish to share (Please bring a list of ingredients)!!

Feed the farmers and meet other shareholders.