Two Feet in the Dirt

Apparently this year, when it rains, it pours. After several weeks of bone-dry weather, we’re getting inundated with multiple days of constant, heavy rainstorms reminiscent of those in May. Excessive rain creates a variety of challenges on the farm. With the soil saturated, it makes it a challenge to prepare beds for planting, which can push back our planned planting, and thus harvest, dates. Additionally, too much rain can cause a variety of issues in the plants that are already growing in the ground. At this time of year, particular culprits are the tomato plants. Tomato plants are particularly susceptible to fungal diseases and a general rule of thumb is...

We finished the big job of harvesting the garlic this week, which means that our longest planted beds are empty at last. Garlic goes into the ground in early November and spends over 8 months growing before being ready for harvest. As it’s our first year farming in this location, we had to put on our thinking caps to figure out where to dry all of the garlic, a process that is essential both for the cured garlic we are all used to buying and for saving our “seed garlic” which will be planted this fall for next year’s crop. After some research by Mike, we came up with a...