Farmer Kurt’s Field Update June 29, 2024 – Kurt Gets into an Accident with Farm Truck
Well, well, well. What a week. Let’s start out with the BIG news: I got into an accident this week with the CSA delivery truck on my way to the Perrysburg pickup site. It happened around 4:30 PM. I was about 3 minutes away from the church (near the Burger King on Rte 20 at the I-75 overpass), when I ran into a truck in front of me. There was a lot of lane switching going on, and I just had my eyes in another spot. Luckily no one got hurt, although I did sprain my right wrist real good. Pretty sure I broke the power steering lines, as there was fluid all over the ground. The front axle and calipers look pretty beat up too. And the hood is smashed in. The police were there almost right away, and I told them, “This truck is full of perishable vegetables and I need to get it to my customers as fast as possible!” God was smiling on us, because a tow truck arrived within 30 minutes. I couldn’t believe how fast it went.
My mom stopped by with her trailer from the market, and was able to load in all our bins to get stuff back home. We left the truck in the lot for the weekend, until the insurance adjuster could come out. I want to thank my Perrysburg site hosts and Corinna for working together to create and communicate our new delivery plan to our customers. Cathy Masin jumped in and helped get the cars organized in a line, to make room for the big rig in the driveway entrance. Richard Chamberlain dropped us a gift card for Panera for dinner, which was much appreciated, because we were famished. Pastor Dan let us keep the truck in the lot for a few days til we figure things out. As I reflected on the experience the next day, I noticed how quickly our CSA community responded to help. I could feel your energy cheering me to the finish line, and I kept thinking, “This is what community is all about.” So thank you.
In other news… our Farm Open House was a blast. What a beautiful evening, with cool temperatures. About 60 people came, and we enjoyed burgers and hot dogs and all kinds of good dessert and salads. The highlight for me was getting to talk to my guests and get to know them better. We took them on a 30 minute wagon tour around the fields in the back 40, and even let them graze on the raspberry bushes!
Last weekend, my buddy Nick was here and framed out a new cooler space in the red barn. This will be spray-foamed in the upcoming weeks, and will replace the current Elmore site cooler next to our garage (which I plan to give to an urban farm in Toledo). It’s nice because it’s on concrete. I can easily pallet jack pallets or carts into here, instead of lifting crates by hand.
This past week, we also went to visit my buddy Zack Zientek — aka the mushroom guy. Zack used to work for me as a grower years ago, and he has since created his own mushroom business called Portage River Mushrooms, that’s really starting to take off. He has a growing chamber that we were able to visit. I felt like I was inside that episode of Clarkson’s Farm (season 3). He’s got all kinds of varieties, and we are looking at a partnership where we help him sell his product to our CSA members through our online store. We are currently beta testing the product with a few of our customers, but you may see a few mushroom varieties show up in the online store in weeks to come. We’ll see if it’s profitable.
The flower of the scape is standing tall — a sign that the garlic bulb is soon ready to harvest.
The garlic is ready to harvest – hopefully I get to it this week! This is a full day’s job, pulling them by hand and cleaning them off. They’ll have to dry on the greenhouse tables for a few weeks to cure, before we cut off the stalks and trim the roots. I always know it’s time to harvest them when I start to see the scapes stand up and flower. (I keep a few scapes uncut for this very reason).
This week we’ll be giving you scallions in your box again. Over the years, I’ve debated whether I should continue to even grow scallions anymore. I know people love them, but they are SO much work, and not very profitable. I don’t think the average person knows how many times we have to touch the plant to get it ready for the customer. First, we harvest. Then the bunches are separated and washed in a washer to remove the soil from the roots. We often spend a fair amount of time pulling off the outer layers of the bulb, so you see that pretty white skin. Roots are trimmed. And if the onions have any yellow tips, which they usually do, we then have to trim the tops, and then bundle them. Whenever Corinna and I see scallions priced at the store for $2/bunch, we just scratch our heads, wondering how a farmer can get away with that? Green onions are literally the most time-intensive crop we grow. I bring this up, because if you see our high price in the online store, it’s because it reflects the amount of labor hours that go into bringing this item to market.
We got some good rain this week. I stopped irrigating. Now the weeds are coming in strong! I put my crew on weed duty all day Friday. The whole front block by the driveway looks really good – peppers, tomatoes, eggplant, sweet potatoes, and basil are weeded. I really need to get to the leeks in the back block now. Wishing you a very Happy Fourth of July. We’ll be seeing you on Thursday!