Farmer Kurt’s Field Notes September 21, 2024
Another very busy harvest week. One of our cooperative farm partners couldn’t meet their contract, so I was offered a chance to pick a pallet of poblanos on top of everything else I was scheduled for. I took it, and that meant another 5 hour block of time harvesting. We’ve been busy harvesting tomatoes, tomatoes, and tomatoes. LOL. No but seriously, the tomatoes just won’t stop. Peppers, too. Every week, we’re loading up a truck of peppers and fennel. My guys are tired. But the end is in sight.
Poblanos were picked for a recent last minute wholesale order that came in.
Weather man says it’s going to rain every day next week. We need the rain — it’s very dry here and I’m running irrigation every day. But that’s throwing my harvest plan for a loop. It means I need to be really strategic about WHEN we can harvest for CSA and for wholesale. Normally we get a bit of a break on Sunday, but I’ve decided to move up harvest to this weekend to beat the rain — and that means asking my crew to give up their day off on Sunday. They have been working SO hard this week. They were out til 10 PM on Thursday after I got home from the Perrysburg pickup. I ended up spending my birthday evening harvesting peppers with the crew for solidarity. (My boys waited patiently to have my birthday dinner and cake until very late).
Harvesting more fennel this week.
Speaking of my birthday, thank you for all the gifts and well wishes and pickup this past week! I’ve got enough beer to last me for 2 weeks! Corinna made me a “treasure hunt” of notes and small gifts throughout the day, as well as a plum cake that was really good. And dinner was a cheese/sausage board — my favorite! I’m a lucky man.
We got our Blackstone up and running last weekend too. We finally seasoned it and cooked our first meal. I want to say a very sincere thank you to all of you for gifting us with this grill. I’ve never actually gone out and bought my own grill before. I’ve always just gotten hand-me-downs. So this was a very special moment for us.
Noah cut the dryland rice last week. He invited his brother and and dad to come out and help. He cut one variety only — and he did it with a sickle! The stalks were then laid out in the back of his dad’s truck bed to take home. They’ll use a machine they have at home to thresh it and get the rice kernels to separate from the head. I’ll let you know how the yield turns out, but it looks very promising! We may well grow this next year as a shelf stable product!
You’re getting beans in the box this week! These are a color mix of yellow, purple or green. I hope you like them! Noah and John planted the vines in a high tunnel and staked them on a trellis, so they’re really prolific.
This will also be the last week you can pre-order bulk tomatoes. They will be strong for one more week – especially the Romas. But I’ve stopped picking cherry tomatoes.
Beans growing on trellis
We also harvested all the rest of the winter squash to get it out of the field before the rain. I chopped down the chard, the kale, and some of the old beans and beet beds. We’re now pulling from the pepper/tomato block and the fall block of beds exclusively. The fields are clearing out! This has been one of our best harvest years on record. I can tell from my SAP analysis that the organic and nutrient content in my soil is much improved, and that’s having an effect on the taste and quality of the plants. Very exciting for me to see this investment in my soil pay off.
Remember that this is week 14 out of 18 of our CSA season. The end is in sight. Many of you are asking, “What happens for next year? How can I sign up?” Never fear: Corinna will walk you through that process next week. I know we start pre-registration on October 20, early in the morning. She is working out the early-bird signup offer this coming week, lining up our vendors, and adjusting our share offerings. We’ve got some exciting stuff planned for next year — REALLY exciting! And we’ll be teasing it out over the next few weeks as part of our Early Signup process. We really appreciate it when you can give us your commitment in the fall like this. It helps us pay the bills January-June, and helps us know where we stand with our sales. (Plus, it just makes us feel really good when a lot of you sign up again so early!)
See you next week!
Farmer Kurt