Jun 16, 20223 min read

Peak Season Preparations {Week 3 CSA}

Summer is swiftly blowing in and we've been working nonstop to get ready for the bright harvests to come. Tomatoes, anyone??

Last week, we were finally able to refresh the very first greenhouse we built — and rebuilt a few months later. A true symbol of our initial naivete as farmers, that greenhouse bore the record of its hasty reassembly all over it: crooked hip boards, sinking sidewalls, and starkly tilted end walls making it easy to see it was our first 'project' on the farm. Within four months of being built, a heavy windstorm literally imploded it. We sent a photo of the destruction to the manufacturer to find out what went wrong and they returned us a full-page color photo of our image with arrows and detailed criticisms for each of our many mistakes. It was as helpful as it was humbling, as almost all farming lessons are. Now, every greenhouse kit they send out includes that full-color image of our mangled greenhouse and their instructive feedback. Fortunately, it leaves out the image credit. :)

We've come a long way since that first year as evidenced by more sleek and structurally-sound greenhouses, and the decreasing number of injuries on Zach's hands (learning-as-you-build, with numb hands in the cold season, is a lesson in corporeal surrender). The innovations for small-scale farmers are developing quickly and each year we try to apply all we can to improve operations. Two weeks ago, Zach and some handy friends installed what is best described as a 30-ft wide swamp cooler in our tomato greenhouse to dampen the highs it reaches. Via a controller that virtually none of us are qualified to use, it kicks on a set of extractor fans generating at least a four-mile-per-hour cool wind across our rapidly growing tomato forest. In theory, our plants should like this very much and reward our boldness with extra juicy fruits this season, but only time will tell... so stay tuned.

In between infrastructure projects exist endless weeding, seeding, planting and harvesting tasks. Soon the seeding will wane while weeding and harvesting amplify. Summer is officially around the corner and the crescendo of peak season arrives quickly thereafter. While the cold season schools us on how to slow down and embrace some dormancy, the long and bright days of summer teach us how to ride the wave without expecting to ever get ahead of it. There is always more weeding to be done, more seedlings begging to be transplanted, and zucchinis that could have been harvested days ago. Summer is a vivacious swirl in nature's elemental ocean and we're happier floating along than we are treading to get anywhere else.

May the approaching solstice serves us all a great sigh as the grass issues its lush invitation. Summer is better when we lie back and enjoy the ride.

Our resident Farm Fairies are often caught red-handed in the tomato forest. :) We grow our tomato plants vertically to allow for maximum growth and production in our limited greenhouse space. By the end of the season, most will be 30-40 feet in length!