Here is an indication that we are having a lot of rain. The barn wall is sprouting dandelions.
Until a couple of weeks ago, I had thought that I was relatively unaffected by the amount of rain.
The east field, which the pigs cleared last year, has been too wet to have the tractor on it for preparing new growing space. It is now a lawn of quack grass.
After the first harvest of Kale, it has become evident that the lack of sunlight has also had an impact.
Most of my calculations for the amount of food to grow has been based upon the last few years as my customer base expanded. During this time, our springs have been hot and sunny.
Many of my crops this season are growing much slower than expected. I had intended to have the first carrots delivered this week and the first ripe tomatoes arriving on a few customers plates as well.
Some leaf crops are growing less full - I had more than enough Kale last year for everyone, and with about the same number of customers this year, planted the same amount to get us started for the first months. When harvesting kale two weeks ago, it was apparent that there was less leaf growth to pick, and many leaves were yellowed from what I suspect is stress from too much water - plant leaves will start to turn yellow when getting too much or too little, and I doubt anyone needs an agricultural degree to determine what the case is here.
The cool weather is making some remarkable leaf growth for the kale. It looks great, just not enough quantity.On the other hand, the lettuce is doing very well, possibly the best I have ever grown.
I have tried growing this red leaf, called Merlot, a few times the past two springs but the weather has been too hot. As it appeared that the warm weather was not coming, I sowed a succession of these with some more dependable lettuces, and this has paid off. We will be eating some of this in a couple of weeks.
Our parsley is growing well, though it is s slow grower at the best of times. Just starting to reach harvest size now.
I consider parsley a leaf vegetable - not an herb or garnish. Easiest way to make it the main flavour in a dish is as follows:
Place cleaned parsley in bottom of colander, (optionally with green onion, garlic scape, mint, lemon balm, or peas) . Cook pasta and drain into colander, then let sit while the heat of the pasta cooks the greens. Stir in some olive or sunflower oil, season with pepper, lemon, etc, and serve.
Tabbouleh is a real treat for those if you who like an oily (filling) salad that is sharp and fresh on the palette.
Essential in tomato based sauces as far as I am concerned.
A very nice addition to a cream based pasta sauce.
Even typical British cuisine can use it - simply boil and serve...LOL!
Another crop which is enjoying the water is the very thirsty crop amaranth. Islanders from the Caribbean call it callaloo and folks who have weeds in their yard and gardens call it pig-weed (which is green instead of red but still very edible).
It is the leaf variety of a south american grain. It is tasteless, taking in the flavor of whatever you cook it with. Use it wherever you would cook spinach - in patties or samosa, casseroles or meatloaf.
If eating as a boiled side dish on it's own, I recommend lemon, pepper, and sunflower seeds. Make sure the rest of the meal has something very flavorful...
It may be eaten raw (it is sometimes found in pre-packaged salad mixes), though I harvest it a little older as the amount of land required would dwarf my farm.
Either they are really liking the weather, or they are setting all of their fruit at once, a behavior that plants express when struggling to survive.
This is the bush delicata that we have grown in previous years.
(Most years) the straw mulch is used under the plants to reduce moisture evaporation. This year, the straw is keeping wet soil away from the plant stems.
Most of our green peppers are cone shaped (an heirloom variety called lipstick). These are similar in flavor to standard bell peppers.
Our hot peppers are also cone shaped, but these are colored yellow and black, respectively - just starting to set flowers as of this post).
The eggplant have finally set a few flowers. The cool weather is not to there liking, and I am not anticipating decent fruit for a while yet. I planted twice as much this year to honor requests - the farmer doesn't always win.
Something is eating the terminal buds of the beans and beets for several years. Most of the time it is just a few plants in each row, and by planting extra seeds, the damage has not had a noticeable effect on the yield.
The damage is consistent with what rodents do to bean plants. However, the row covers have not stopped this from happening and there are no footprints or tail tracks in the soil.
So my next theory is earwigs, which damage both beans and beets on occasion. I have tried trapping them but to no avail. (I will have to sacrifice a good nights sleep to find out for sure).
I am currently looking into purchasing predator insects - lacewings - to help head off aphid damage this fall. Lacewings also eat earwigs, and I know that earwigs tend to prefer wet, cool weather. We could have a bumper crop of these little insects next season if I can't find a control for them now.
I have had to do some research and a lot of communicating with the insect supplier and my organic agency, as the insects are not certified organic. I need to be able to provide adequate proof that there is not modified genetics in the lacewing population before I purchase them. Sounds simple, but a little more complicated than I thought....
Kohlrabi is a brassica, and has a taste similar to broccoli stem. The 'bulb' may be eaten steamed or raw, often used grated in a slaw.
The leaves may be used interchangeably in Kale, I sampled some steamed leaves the other night and found it does not require tearing the leaf away from the central leaf vein as is often the case with Kale.
The stems are also edible, but in this case,the skin DOES need peeling.
Kohlrabi is a common staple in Europe, parts of India, and northern Vietnam.
One bed is producing very nice (bulbs? roots? not sure what to call these), the other they are quite small but otherwise very healthy.
The bulbs I sampled raw last week were eaten whole - no peeling required and I am usually a bit picky about this sort of thing, so I will go out on a limb and suggest that the smaller bulbs are fine with their skins still on.
There are two factors that I need to check as to why the size is different with both beds.
The larger kohlrabi is in a richer bed and receives a little more sun; the smaller bulbs from a weaker bed with just a little more shade. As I write this, I am starting to recall I did two successions a week apart. Time will tell on that, both what the plants do over the next seven days and what my notes (at the farm) tell me.
A few fruits have developed blossom end rot, sometimes a sign of lack of calcium. I know this not to be the case, as I add a rock amendment of calcium phosphate to the beds a year before fruiting plants are sown.
So I can only assume that too much moisture may be the cause as well.
The plants are just starting to fruit, but the seed catalogs assure me that this variety is a heavy producer.
The cucumber is growing in a similar fashion, but instead of some blossom end rot, a few stems on two vines have withered. This has never happened while growing this variety here - a standard marketmore. Therefore, I also assume it is excessive moisture.This year, I planted two successions of cukes, to try and even out the harvests a bit (last year we had a lot of cucumbers in a period of about three weeks and then the yield dropped a lot).
So, if the wet weather damages the first round, (and the summer starts to dry out a bit), the second succession will make up the difference. For once, the farmer gets the last laugh!
Either way, the first plants are setting a lot of fruit, and I am reasonably confident we will have a decent yield. I'll be harvesting them a bit small just to make sure.
My biggest concern is the potatoes. Almost all potatoes are sown in fairly low areas of the field, for no other reason than coincidence.I have been taking the hoe to the beds to try and get the moisture wicking up out of the soil to prevent the tubers from rotting.
I won't know the results of my efforts until harvest time, but I did do a test pull of the early white potatoes and the mid season fingerlings and could find no problems.
These are the very late season red chieftains, not yet sprouted. As an additional fail safe, I delayed planting slightly in hopes that the worst of the rain has passed; I used the extra time to aerate the beds again to try and get excess moisture out of the ground. Plastic IRT mulch has also been useful keeping the beds a bit dry, though on windy days this is a very time consuming effort - and probably quite humorous to see for passers-by...
I've often said that I can handle dry weather better than rainy weather, at the very least, I can take a certain amount of water to the field much more efficiently than I can dry the filed out. However, I am not helpless and continue to devise tricks to keep the soil a bit dry when necessary. Yet another advantage of small scale farming.Simple tasks such as spreading out row covers to dry, so that the wet fabric is not pressed against the leaves, often help mitigate the effects of the wet weather..
There is so much potential here in Eastern Ontario...barns that may be renovated for livestock or simply keeping hay dry.
Cedar wood lots for fence posts, tomato stakes, and shed beams...
The search continues...