Seasons Greetings

Contemplate the joys of the season

Best Wishes for a prosperous 2010

Food, Inc. Comes to Town

Just a quick note of interest... the documentary film everyone has been talking about, Food, Inc. is coming to the Saratoga Film Forum. If you are interested in food issues, especially where your food comes from, you must see this movie. Here's the what the Film Forum review had to say about it: Otto Von Bismark once said, "Laws are like sausages; it is better not to see them being made". This is especially true , perhaps, of laws regarding the production of sausages or of food in general. However, Food, Inc. does just that, lifting the veil on our nation's food industry and exposing the dark underbelly. Controlled primarily by a handful of multinational corporations, the global food production business has as its goal the production of large quantities of food at low cost, resulting in large profits and greater control of the global food supply by these few companies. The health and safety of the food, animals, workers, and consumers are rarely these companies' chief concerns, and are often overlooked by the government. Food, Inc. reveals surprising and often shocking truths about what we eat, how it's produce, who we have become as a nation, and where we are going from here.

The film is being shown on Thursday and Friday nights, November 12 and 13, at 8 p.m. It is also being shown on Sunday afternoon, November 15, as part of a special Local Foods, Local Films event. In addition to Food, Inc., two short films by local filmmakers, focused on food and farming issues will be premiered. Local food will be provided by One Caroline Bistro and Mouzon House. Tammara will be leading a panel discussion after the films for any one interested in talking about them. It should be interesting event. Here's a link to the Film Forum for more information: http://www.saratogafilmforum.org

Seasons Come, Seasons Go

Another season has come and gone. Our last market was held this past Saturday on Halloween morning. Despite predictions of rain, the day turned out to be quite nice and surprisingly warm. This brought out a lot of our regular customers to shop one last time and gave us a chance to thank them for their season long support and wish them well until spring. We ended the season with a reasonable selection of produce at the market - plenty of salad and cooking greens, scallions, radishes, and broccoli.

After the last market we attended the annual farmers market lunch at Mouzon House, the great restaurant located just south of High Rock park. Many of the farms provided produce and other products for the lunch which was attended by many of the farmers, their families and farm helpers, and dedicated customers. The event was very well attended and it was a fun festive way to end the season.


On Friday, our last harvest day on the farm, we had our own end of season celebration. Pizza and ice cream satisfied a hungry crew. Many a slice were put away, making the afternoon drag a bit as we all tried to overcome our food comas. Martin wins the honors for most slices consumed - it was impressive.

It is a bitter-sweet time of year. I am certainly looking forward to a break and some much needed time off, but also a bit sad to be saying good-bye to a great crew who have become good friends. Everyone goes their separate ways. Martin will shift his focus back to his artwork as he prepares for a gallery showing in Hudson, NY for February. Laura leaves tomorrow for Guatemala for some warmer weather and travel adventure. Luke returns to selling records at Last Vestige while he plots his strategy for becoming the next big thing in the music and art worlds. Maureen is also planning for travels to warmer climates - hoping to make arrangements for an extended stay in Florida. Tammara and I will be doing some traveling as well; North Carolina to visit friends during Thanksgiving, and Yucatan, Mexico around New Year's.

The farm is in good shape as we head into late fall. The earlier cover crops of oats, peas, and vetch came up beautifully, turning the fields a wonderful emerald green. This is a nice sight during the time of year when everything else has turned brown. The later cover crops of rye and vetch didn't seems to germinate - I guess it was just too cold to get them started. With some luck, maybe an Indian Summer will be just enough to get them going. If you can get them started they will at least be there to grow in the early spring.

There are still lots of clean up projects to do, but most of the critical things have been taken care of. The pace of life can now finally slow down a bit; time to recharge, renew, and relax. I hope to keep this blog going, at least in a limited capacity, through the winter. When we get a chance to look at all our records and notes we will do a season recap - what crops did well, which did poorly, and how did this season compare to past ones. There are also a number of good farm conferences and meetings that we will be attending, so we will report any interesting information we can gather. So, until next time .... cheers!

Frozen Tundra

You know it's cold when you open the walk-in cooler and it feels balmy! It's been a chilly week here at the farm - down in the mid-twenties almost every morning. The frost has been so thick it almost looks like snow. The farm is looking fairly desolate and bleak. This has essentially brought the growing season to an abrupt end, although we are continuing to harvest a few crops. It always amazes me to see the resilience of some plants that are able to nearly freeze solid and yet totally recover after they thaw out. The greens and brassicas are particularly good at this. As long as the leaves are not frozen when they are harvested, they seem to look and taste fine.

We have two more weeks to go in our market season. Many of our crops are done, but we will still continue to have a reasonably full table at the farmer's market. We have a decent supply of lettuce and all the salad greens, plus lots of kale, stir-fry greens, radicchio, frisee, potatoes, radishes, and of course our regular offerings of sprouts. We will also have a limited supply of broccoli, turnips, broccoli raab, and tomatoes. So even though the crops have stopped growing, there is still plenty of great food on hand at the market.

Activities on the farm have shifted from growing to clean-up. In the past two weeks we have dismantled all the hoop houses that were covering the tomatoes and peppers. (The tomatoes are now slowly ripening in the basement). We have also pulled up all the landscape fabric that was covering the melon patch. This is a really dirty and smelly job, and the cold weather didn't make it any more fun. The crew made the best of things - dressing warmly and and taking breaks for batting practice with frozen half rotten melons.

There are lots of clean-up and maintenance projects to go: mowing down old crops and around all the surrounding fields, cleaning out greenhouse beds, and fixing all the stuff that has broke this year that we haven't had time to deal with. All I can say is - thank God for winter!

Fall Colors and Mystery Brassica

Fall colors have arrived at Minglewood. It seems a little later to get started here this year than it has in past seasons. I know that the shift in colors is triggered by the shortening day length, but I'm sure the temperature and moisture has a least some effect as well. Perhaps with all the rain this summer the trees were less stressed than in other recent years and thus slower to change colors. For whatever the reason - they sure are pretty to look at.

The clear, dry and sunny days of September have left us for these past couple of weeks with a return to yet another cold and rainy spell. We received over 3 inches of rain in the past week, turning the fields to muddy mess once again. Fortunately, I did get the fall cover crops seeded before the rains started, so we have a nice crop of oats, peas, and vetch coming up over most of the farm. It's not likely that we will be able to use a tractor on the fields again this fall, so areas that still have vegetables growing on them will just have to stay open through the winter and get cleaned up in the spring.

Fall is prime time for all the brassicas - the vegetable family that includes cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, etc. It is possible to grow some of these crops during the main growing season of spring and summer, but they really thrive and do best during the fall. Each year we grow a selection of brassicas - some standard broccoli and kale, bunches of broccolini (Chinese kale), broccoli raab, Japanese salad turnips, baby Boc Choi, and all the mustard greens for our stir-fry mix. We also grow some unusual cauliflower varieties - usually Romanesque and a beautiful purple variety.

Much to our dismay, this years patch of Romanesque turned out to be quite the surprise. In past years this beautiful heirloom variety takes so long to form heads that we often don't have them until early November, after our farmers market season is over. So this year I planted them several weeks earlier, hoping to have them head up in October. For some reason they all started forming very open heads in early September and looked like they were bolting. The crop appeared to be a total loss and I was very disappointed, as this is one of my favorite crops to eat and always an eye-catcher at market. The heads are are supposed to be small
and conical, sort of like a seashell,
and they are bright green. Anyway, I ignored the
patch for the past month and then this past week
I noticed something very strange... perfect little
purple broccoli-like florets growing out of the tops of the bolted heads. They are truly bizarre, but what the heck, I cut a few and steamed them up, and what do you know- they were really tasty! Now my problem is if I sell this stuff - what do I call it? I think I've settled on 'Roman Sprouting Broccoli'. Now if I can just patent it before some one else discovers it I'll be rich! Look for it at market this week.




New this past week at market as well - those tasty little salad turnips you'll remember from the spring. Slice them up raw - like a very mild radish, or steam, roast, or saute if you prefer.
Don't forget that the greens are edible too.

A Chill in the Air

What a beautiful stretch of weather! Except for a very few brief showers we have had nothing but clear sunny and cool days for all of September. The last day with significant rainfall was August 29 when we received 1.75 inches. This dry spell will no doubt counter balance all the rain earlier in the summer and the record books will list 2009 as an average year for rain. But don't be fooled, the recorded rain for June, July, and August in Albany was the third wettest on record and the two wetter years were both in the 1800's. So... we did have good reason to complain about all the rain.

The clear weather has also brought cool temperatures in the past few nights. We woke on Saturday morning to go to market and found heavy frost on the truck windshield. There were only scattered patches of frost on the lawn and temperatures were not low enough to kill any plants, but it was downright chilly. Out came the long underwear, wool hats, and gloves to go to market. It warmed up fast, but stayed cool under the pavilions when we weren't moving around too much. The threat of frost has also brought out all the row cover to protect the crops and try to keep them growing a little longer. Sometimes I feel more like a chamber maid than a farmer... put on the sheets, take off the sheets, day after day. The photos this week give a good idea of the state of the farm this time of year. Just a few sections of field with crops left on them, field tunnels and greenhouses closed up for warmth, and lots of row cover. Note: we were on the roof cleaning the wood stove chimney - I'm always impressed by what a great view it is up there.

Activities on the farm start to shift this time of year from seeding and planting to clean-up and putting fields to bed. The last planting for the season went in this past week - a late patch of boc choi and stir-fry greens. There are two more weeks of greenhouse baby greens to seed, but all the outside crops are finally in. This next week we will start to get our winter cover crops seeded on all the open sections of field. We usually seed a mixture of oats, peas and vetch at this time of year and shift to rye and vetch on the sections we don't get to until October. The season marches on.

It's Harvest Season

September 13... How did that happen? Where did summer go? I guess time flies when you're insanely busy. The August market season is always a whirlwind, and this year was no exception. We survived - a little beat up and weary, but still standing.

While we were stressing out over the whole tomato blight situation and worrying about losing a major crop, much to our dismay, we ran out of lettuce. A number of factors led to this unfortunate event: hot and muggy weather, mold and fungus diseases, and weeds. It seems that no matter how much lettuce we plant, at some point this happens almost every season. August is just not a good month for greens (there's a reason it's called "Spring Mix"). We had a couple of weeks at market where we were running out of greens less than half way through the market. We hate to disappoint customers, but there was nothing we could do about it. Most of our customers were very sympathetic and that was greatly appreciated. This past week we had a bit of a comeback in the lettuce patch and made it through the entire market with a little left over to spare. If we are careful and do not over cut, we should have a steady supply of greens through the rest of the season.

Despite the shortage of greens, there is no lack of food at our stand or throughout the market. This time of year offers the greatest variety of crops of the whole season. Summer crops are still going strong, and now many of the fall crops are coming in as well. Here's just some of the crops we had this past week: green beans, baby boc choi, broccoli, broccoli raab, cilantro, cucumbers, escarole, shiitake mushrooms, potatoes, peppers, radicchio, radish, scallions, spinach, sprouts, stir-fry greens, tomatoes, and melons. In the next few weeks we will also be adding: cauliflower, kale, broccolini, and salad turnips. I guess there is good reason to call this time of year the "harvest season". This is the time to stock up and stuff yourself on good healthy local vegetables - it won't be long before winter forces most of us back to the sterile produce aisle of the grocery stores.


It's also the time to get your fill of local heirloom tomatoes. Despite our worst fears of Late Blight on the tomatoes, we have managed to salvage a small, but respectable crop. For once the weather was on our side to help slow down the disease. The fungus showed up on our farm a little later than it did on some other surrounding farms, and happened to coincide with the start of a hot sunny dry period (one of the few we actually had). Late blight has a fairly narrow temperature range that it can thrive in and it does not do well in higher temperatures. To try to take advantage of this we closed up most of the tomato hoop houses and tried to cook the blight spores. We also reluctantly decided to spray copper, the only allowable organic fungicide, to try to save the uninfected fruit. We only sprayed twice, about ten days apart. I'm not sure which of these things had the most effect, but the result was after about two weeks, very little of the fruit was infected with blight. While this was a big relief, our yield is still greatly reduced. As of mid-September we have harvested a little over 1500 pounds. In past years we have generally harvested about 3000 pounds by this point. With the cooler temperatures and shorter days the tomatoes are really starting to slow in their ripening. I expect we will continue to have them for awhile yet, but in far less quantities than we've had over the past few weeks. Get 'em while you can!

Watermelons

Hot August afternoons lead me to dream of cool, juicy and sweet watermelons. There is no better source of relief I can think of, except maybe soaking my head in the Battenkill. Summer weather has finally found us here in the last weeks of August with temperatures pushing into the 90's, humidity making it feel like you're walking through an aquarium, and dramatic thunderstorms every other afternoon. The warmer temperatures have finally pushed some warm weather crops towards maturity. We picked our first ripe watermelon yesterday and proclaimed, "This is good!"

It's always a little difficult to tell when the melons are ready and usually requires a bit of sampling to be sure. We basically go by the 'pig tail' method and find it pretty reliable. Check the little curly tendril along the main vine closest to the melon in question. If it is dried and browning, the melon is likely ready. If it's still green, check again in a few days.

This year we are growing four types of melons: Sugar Baby, a red bowling ball sized watermelon, Yellow Moonbeam, a yellow watermelon, Sugar Nut, a small canary melon with yellow skin and
green flesh, and Delicious, a standard cantaloupe. I'm not sure how many I'll find that are ripe yet, but plan to start bringing them to market this week.

The summer weather has brought all kinds of woes to the farm. It would be real easy to go on and on about this, week after week, wallowing in the challenges of farming, but I won't subject you to that today. When things get this frustrating I need to focus on the positive. So, I won't mention how crazy a day last Friday was when we lost power for 4 hours due to a severe thunderstorm and had to get ready for Saturday's market with no water or refrigeration. And I'm certainly not going to even hint at the reaction the baby greens growing in the greenhouse are having to the heat and humidity and all the mold, rot, and goo it brings with it. And I wouldn't think of writing about how fast and tall weeds can grow in this weather ("I could swear I planted a cash crop here").

Yes, stay positive! Enjoy the summer and all the good things it brings: walking barefoot, floating in a cool lake, reading books in the sun, and eating watermelon.

We've Been Blighted!

Well I guess it was inevitable that we would eventually get the dreaded Late Blight. Its presence was confirmed on the farm two weeks ago by Cooperative Extension. Above is an example of what it is doing to the tomato crop... not a pretty sight. The disease initially swept through the whole patch very quickly, effecting some varieties worse than others. Fortunately, at about the time of its arrival, the weather turned from cool and wet to hot and dry. So even though the disease is here, it has not got dramatically worse in the past two weeks. Nonetheless, a significant portion of the crop is a total loss. I was able to pick about 200 pounds today, but for every good tomato I could find, there were probably 10 that were junk.

The other piece of this horror story is the potato crop... it too has been hit by the blight. So while we are able to sort through the rotten potatoes and still find some good ones, this situation will probably get worse and worse each week as we dig them. Also, the good ones that we do find should be used relatively quickly and not stored, as they probably won't stay good for very long. Ah, the life of a farmer!

Many people have probably been following the Late Blight story in the news, but in case you missed it, here's the short version. In an ordinary year we often get late blight, but it doesn't arrive until late in the season and is not much of an issue. The fungal disease is airborne and spreads northward from the south. This year a large greenhouse supplier shipped infected garden transplants to box store outlets all over the northeast. This essentially gave the disease a 2000 mile jump start, showing up in farms in this area in June. The weather was also ideal for its rapid spread - cool and wet - note - just like Ireland during the famous potato famine. Fortunately, the spores of the disease will die with freezing temperature, so it should not carry over from year to year here. Of course there is nothing to prevent infected plants from being imported into the area again.

Our strategy at Minglewood is to struggle on - sort through the rotten fruit and sell what we can. I have sprayed once with copper, a fungicide that is approved for organic production. My hope is to try to save as much of the uninfected fruit as possible. It's nasty stuff and I would rather not have to use it. We'll try it for a couple of weeks and see if it's making any difference.

On a more positive note... with the drier weather the slugs have finally slowed down their feeding. The past two weeks we have had a bumper crop of shiitake mushrooms. I think they prefer the warmer temperatures as well. We have also had a nice productive run on cucumbers- picking well over 500 from a 150 foot row - and they're still coming!

Summertime Blues

Well, so much for sunshine; our break from cool wet weather has ended, replaced by hot wet weather. We did have a couple of sunny days this past week, but still ended up with over 4 inches of rain over the past 7 days. An all day steady rain on Friday meant a very muddy and miserable harvest day. My thanks go out to the Minglewood crew once again for their positive attitude and willingness to work in the most awful conditions. Digging potatoes was particularly challenging - just trying to find them in the muck!


So the season pushes onward. Today is August 2nd which means we are officially half way through our season, at least as far as farmers markets go. August brings the start of the Thoroughbred horse racing season to Saratoga - always a busy and crazy time of year. It's the time of year that our clientele makes a shift. Many of our regular customers leave town, either to go on summer vacations or just to avoid the hectic parking and crowds that take over the town. But the track season also brings in many new faces to the market, so we get to see lots of people we haven't seen since last August. So it all balances out.

Our crops are also shifting this time of year. Earlier in the summer we had a terrific run with the greens due to the cool temperatures. The past week or so has heated up and I can already see the effect on the greens, especially the arugula. The warm humid days bring with them a whole host of fungus and mold spores, and arugula is probably the first to succumb to them. We are finding lots of yellowing and rotting, and thus much lower yields this past week. The warmer days have also brought out a very hungry hatching of flea beetles, which are turning many of the baby mesclun greens to lace. We struggle on, hoping for dryer and sunnier days.

On the plus side, the warmer temperatures are finally pushing the warm weather crops to mature. We picked our first crop of cucumbers this week, and the green beans are growing like crazy. The watermelons and cantaloupe are a long way from being ready to pick, but they are starting to size up.

On the tomato front, we continue to wait for that first big flush. We picked about 20 pounds this week, but expect that to increase dramatically in the next week or two. We actually should be counting our blessings... Late Blight has spread with a vengeance this year, infecting farms all around us. This is a serious fungal disease which devastates a tomato crop. Basically if your crop gets it, your tomato season is over. The disease spreads very quickly and kills the plants in a matter of days. So far we have managed to avoid this plague, but we have a long way to go before the crop is in, so who knows. The only organic prevention to the disease is to spray your plants regularly every week with a copper solution. This is not a full proof method, your plants may get blight any way, and unfortunately, copper will kill a good portion of the biota in your soil as well. We have opted not to spray and keep our fingers crossed. On commercial non-organic farms there are a whole host of fungicides that can be sprayed to try to save the crop, and most farms are probably using them this season. So if you are buying commercial tomatoes, even local ones, definitely wash them very well before eating them. All this tomato blight hysteria brings to mind the importance of a well diversified vegetable farm. If one crop is doing poorly, hopefully you are growing another crop that is doing great.

We wil keep you posted.

Let the Tomatoes Begin

Well, the tomatoes are not exactly off to a roaring start, but they have started to trickle in here at Minglewood. With the cool weather of early summer and too much rain, it's not shaping up to be a banner year for warm weather crops like tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, or melons. Despite this, we will definitely have a crop, maybe not quite as abundant as some other years, but don't despair, there will be Minglewood tomatoes. During the past week we picked about 15 pounds, and there appears to be plenty of green fruit on the vines. Each week we will be bringing more and more. Keep in mind that the tomato season for us does not peak until around Labor Day.

Other good news is that green beans are starting to produce. We used to grow a lot of these, but got so sick of picking them that we stopped growing them for a few years. Lately, we have missed them, so we are growing them again, but in limited, more manageable quantities. We grow a beautiful variety called Jade. It's a long narrow bean, which we try to pick while it's small and tender.

Also in the good news department, spinach is back. You may recall we had a crop failure early in the season due to spinach blight, a virus transmitted by aphids. We started planting the spinach on the opposite side of the farm, and plowed under the diseased plantings. And what do you know, the new crop is disease free - so far. Spinach is not a big fan of hot weather, so I'm not sure how long the success will last, but it looks like we will have plenty to go around for the next few weeks.

Enjoy the bounty of summer!

Wildlife, Fresh Faces, Fresh Food

It's a wild life here on the farm. The robins have hatched their second brood of chicks for the season. Mama Robin, in her good judgement, reused an old nest located in the rafters of the farm shed. Not the best place for privacy, considering all the human traffic through there all day long, but certainly the driest spot for a nest during this wet summer. I was excited that at least two of the eggs hatched, because one of them had actually blown out of the nest into the driveway a few weeks ago. I carefully returned it to the nest and the parents continued to incubate the eggs, despite the tale that a bird will abandon a nest if it is touched by humans.

It was also an unusual week for other bird sightings here. Early one morning while watering the greenhouse, I heard the distinct call of a loon as it flew overhead. After a moment of confusion to where I was, I ran outside to look for it, but it was already out of sight. This bird was apparently as confused as I was. I've heard that loons are occasionally seen on Cossayuna Lake on their migrations north or south, but this time of year it's quite rare to find them here.

Now, I am not making this up, I swear, later that evening I'm washing dishes and look out the window to see a large bird flying over. It turns to reflect the fading light and it's head is pure white... no mistaking a mature Bald Eagle, here over Minglewood. Again, not unheard of, especially in the winter, but pretty unusual during the middle of summer.



Well, back to the topic of farming. The crew roster this season has grown and evolved to be quite the eclectic, experienced and dedicated bunch. At the core we have Martin, professional artist and art blogger, back for his second season. Luke, another artist, as well as, musician/performer is back for a third season, after a hiatus away in the big city. Laura H. is recently back on the farm, a recent SUNY Oneonta graduate, returning after three years away. Also back to help with markets and one day a week is Laura S., one of our longest term

employees at four seasons. Rounding out the roster with a day a week is Maura M. also returning for her fourth or fifth season; Maureen, helping with markets and Wednesday harvests; Molly filling in for market help while attending summer courses at Skidmore; and new comer Linea starting this past week. In addition to the regular crew, our friend Tom Mendel has been graciously helping out a morning a week. Obviously, it takes a lot of hands to bring all that good food to market each week. Be sure to thank a farm worker when you meet them, it's a lot of hard work that mostly goes unrecognized. Thank you crew! And oddly enough, did any one realize that everyone on the crew has a first name starting with 'L' or 'M' (except for Tom, because he's exceptional). What'sup with dat?

On the food front... freshly dug new fingerling potatoes are in! We are growing three varieties again this year: Russian Banana, French Fingerling, and All Blue.

Banana is probably the best known of fingerlings. It has tan skin with dark yellow flesh and forms the classic finger-shape at 2-3 inches. This is my favorite potato to roast with olive oil and fresh herbs.

French Fingerling, also known as Nosebag, is plumper than most, but is still considered a fingerling. Rose-red skin and deep yellow flesh make this potato really stand out. It has a creamy smooth texture with exceptional flavor.

All-Blue, is more of a specialty potato rather than a true fingerling. It has deep-blue skin and blue flesh. Freshly dug and washed these appear as sparkling jewels.

We will be bringing potatoes to market through out the summer and into the fall, for as long as they last.

Sunshine Returns to Minglewood

What was that bright light in the sky this week? Oh yeah, the sun... it's been awhile since we have seen much of it. It was much needed relief after all the cool and wet weather of the past few weeks. The fields dried out enough early in the week to get mostly caught up on all the transplanting and seeding we had fallen behind on. On Thursday we even had time to start weeding and cultivating some crops. We still have an endless amount of weed pulling to go, but it felt good to at least make a dent.




This past week brought the end to the snap pea season on the farm. They had a pretty good run, harvesting for a little over 3 weeks. That's about all you can ever expect. We also grow a couple of rows of shell peas, mostly for ourselves to freeze. We don't usually sell them because they are so much work for what you can get out of them. It takes just as long to pick a pint of shell peas as it does snap peas, but by the time you shell the peas, you are left with barely a single serving. We can't really justify selling them for what it really costs to pick them. Despite all this, we will probably have a few extra to sell at market this
week.

Most of the other crops continue to do well, despite all the challenging conditions. The unusually cool and damp weather has really pushed the greens to perform well. The head lettuce and escarole are absolutely huge. The baby greenhouse greens have done well also. I think we harvested more arugula from the beds this week than ever before. For Saturday's market we cut nearly 30 pounds from 3 1/2 beds; that's about twice what I would normally expect!

We are hoping the next couple of weeks stay on the dry side so we can continue to get the rest of the fall crops in the ground. We still need to plant the fall broccoli, kale, turnips, broccolini, and raab, as well as, the late plantings of lettuce, spinach, scallions, boc choi and other crops we try to have available all season long. There is a small window of opportunity now, between the last of the pea picking and the start of the tomato picking, where we actually have a little time to focus on planting and weeding and spend less time on harvesting. So much to do....how did it get to be mid-July already!

After the Deluge

Last Wednesday brought severe thunderstorms to Washington county. We were at the Saratoga Farmer's Market when they came though, so we didn't know what to expect upon our return. I suppose we should consider ourselves lucky, as the storms were much worse to the north and south of us, but none the less, things were really a mess. We received over 3 inches of hard rain that afternoon. We may have had a little hail as well, but not enough to tear thing up too much.

The most noticeable damage was in the melon field, which is on a slight incline. The flooding rain created a major wash-out of mud right across the
top of the row cover. The mud flow continued
down hill and actually washed right through the
tomato tunnels. The tomatoes were not
damaged, although the ground is so saturated that
some of the plants are showing signs of severe
stress.


Most of the other crops made it through the storm okay, the worse damage being done to the lettuce which was pretty bruised from the driving rain. I was quite worried at first that it might be too damaged to sell, but by Friday's harvest most of it seemed to have recovered and we were able to salvage the bulk of the crop.

So, now we are left to deal with more mud. By this afternoon to our amazement, things were actually starting to dry out. I was able to get some mowing done and even seed more beans, radish and spinach. If it would just stay dry for a couple more days we could get back on track,
unfortunately, the forecast doesn't look to
promising for that to happen.



Despite all the bad weather we continue to have a nice variety of produce at the market. It has been a phenomenal year for the snap peas; the vines are so loaded they collapsed the trellis. We picked over 100 pounds for last Saturday's market and sold all bought a hand full. We probably have about another week of picking before they are done. There are still a lot of pods on the vines, but the rain has really brought on the diseases and rot.

Other crops are coming to a end as well: broccolini is just about done, and we're down to the last of the turnips. On the upside: radicchio is starting to head up, and new potatoes are only a few weeks away. So, keep visiting us at market to see what is new!

Out of Control

All of a sudden the farm is completely out of control. Some how this seems to happen around this time of year every season. You start off easily staying on schedule with all the seeding, planting, and even most of the weeding. Then as the season progresses and there are all these crops that need to be harvested and sold, and there is less and less time for the planting and seeding. Throw in a couple of weeks of rain and warmer temperatures which lead to an explosion of weeds virtually over night... and the farm is out of control. There is no way to ever catch up, no matter how many hours a day you work or how many workers you hire. There is only one thing
to do.... RUN AWAY!!!.


So that is what we did this weekend. We strapped the canoe to the truck and headed to the wilderness. We spent two beautiful days (some how missing all the forecasted showers) exploring Adirondack lakes and wetlands. We saw lots of wildlife: deer (with fawn), turtles, frogs, bald eagle, and loons (with chicks attached to backs). It's always hard to walk away from the farm, knowing how much work needs to be done and that now you are even further behind, but if you didn't ever leave, you would seriously go crazy.



Returning home on Monday night we were tired,
but refreshed and ready to face the farm with at
least a slightly better out look. Here's to summer... with all it's wacky weather, bugs, slugs, and new challenges everyday.

Summer Soltice Brings Spring Bounty

Happy first day of summer! We wait all year for this and now it's finally here. The calender may say it's summer, but to be honest, it doesn't really feel like summer yet. The temperatures have stayed on the cool side and it's been cloudy and rainy for the past two weeks. This may not be great summer weather, but the spring crops have been loving it.



This has been ideal conditions for cool weather crops such as peas, lettuce, and other greens. The lettuce just keeps getting bigger and bigger without any signs of bolting. Its almost embarrassing to bring some of these gigundo heads to market - our customers probably think we're injecting them with steroids or something. We've also been harvesting some really beautiful heads of Frisse endive this week, probably the nicest heads I've ever been able to grow.



The table at market has been overflowing the past couple of weeks with a bounty of spring crops. In addition to our regular offerings of cut salad mixes and sprouts we have been bringing baby boc choi, cut stir-fry greens, Japanese salad turnips, escarole, frisse, French breakfast radishes, and Chinese kale (brocolini). This past Saturday was also our first market this season with sugar snap peas. The plants are completely loaded with pods. We picked 30 pounds on Friday, and barely made a dent in what was on the plants.



We get a lot of questions at market about a few of these crops, so for the record here are our stock answers to a few of them.



What's a salad turnip? This is a variety of turnip that is very tender and mild. You can cut it and use like a radish, but it is much less spicy. People are truly shocked when they taste one raw - they really don't taste much like a turnip at all. You can also cook the turnips, either steamed, sauteed, or our favorite - roasted. To roast, just cut into chunks, toss with olive oil, add a little salt and pepper or fresh herbs, and bake in a 400 degree oven until just tender - don't over cook or they'll turn to shmush.

What is a French Breakfast radish? This is a small elongated radish, red on top and white at the tip. They are a little less spicy than a regular radish, but still have a good radish flavor. Supposedly they are eaten in France with soft butter and served for breakfast - believe it or not.



What is Chinese Kale? This is a plant in the brassica family, closely related to broccoli, kale, and collards. It looks like a miniature broccoli plant, with a tiny head. I am not positive, but I believe what is marketed in supermarkets as "brocolini" is actually Chinese kale. Brocolini is a trade marked name, so technically no one else is supposed to use it. Anyway, Chinese kale is used much like regular kale, chopped up and steamed, stir-fried, or sauteed. Use the leaves, small bud, and the upper parts of the stem. The flavor is quite mild and sweet.

We will continue to have most of these crops for another couple of weeks, and then grow them again for the cool season during autumn, so be sure to try them while they are available.

On a follow up note, we have decided that our spinach problem is Spinach Blight. This is not good news. It is actually a virus that is spread from plant to plant by aphids. Plants first turn yellow and then shortly thereafter die. To get rid of the disease, you have to get rid of the aphids, not an easy thing to do. There are a few allowable sprays you can use in organic production to kill aphids, but they are not too effective. We are going to try to move the later spinach plantings to a different field, perhaps keep them covered with fabric, and try spraying with stylet oil. Fortunately the virus only effects spinach and not any of the other greens we grow. We will keep you posted on this front.

Muddy Boots and Slugs

It was a wet week at Minglewood, over two inches of rain in the past five days. This means only one thing here - lots of mud - boot sucking mud! I've never lived anywhere before with soil like we have here on the farm. Even our Peace Corps days, living in the jungles of Ecuador, can't compete with the slime factor of Minglewood mud. It is something that has to be experienced to be appreciated.





The other thing that lots of rain usually leads to is lots of slugs, and this week was no exception. Slugs on lettuce, slugs on escarole, slugs on radishes, and especially slugs on mushrooms - pretty much decimating all of this weeks crop. We are definitely going to be looking into the escargot market; they would go so well with those French Breakfast radishes - and we could harvest two crops at the same time. Actually, in comparison to a lot of other pests, they really don't do all that much damage, they just have a high " icky" factor. We do our best to wash them off - and seriously apologize if any found their way into our customer's salad bowls. Most of them don't travel with their own portable shelter like this guy, making the average slug far less attractive.

Despite the rain and mud we did manage to squeeze in some transplanting, getting in the weeks lettuce set and the first plantings of cucumber, watermelons, and cantaloupes. We are mostly up to date on planting, but starting to fall behind on the weeding and cultivating. With the rain and warmer temperatures everything, both crops and weeds, are growing like gang-busters. Hopefully, with a few days of dryer weather we will be able to get ahead of the weeds before they get to big. Realistically, its usually a losing battle, but we try.

Saturday's market was the last day for our plant sales, closing out that part of the season with a "buy one, get one free" sale. Most of the plants were showing a lot of stress, outgrowing their little pots, and just needing to get in the ground. The plants that did not sell will be donated to some local community garden projects.

Wallowing in lettuce, spinach blues

It's June and the season is progressing along. Hopefully, we have seen the last of the late season frosts, making a final appearance here on the morning of June 1st. It didn't do any real damage to any crops, but did burn the fringes of some of our tomato plants we grew for sale. This was the latest frost we have had here since we started farming in 1999. The frosts may be over, but the nights have remained cool, generally dipping down into the 40's. This is not particularly great weather for tomatoes and peppers, but it has been great for the lettuce and greens.

All of a sudden we are wallowing in lettuce. We try to stagger the plantings to insure a steady supply all season long. The first three plantings, each planted a week apart, have all sized up at the same time. So, now we have three times as much lettuce than we can expect to sell - oh well. On the down side of the greens story, something strange is going on in the spinach patch. Some sort of disease is slowly spreading through the field, turning the entire patch yellow. At first I thought it was just a lack of nitrogen or perhaps just way to much water during our rainy spell, but recently, it appears to be spreading more like a disease problem. I'll have to do some research to see if we can figure it out. Unfortunately, we may be in short supply of spinach for some time.


Other crops on the farm are looking great. Potatoes are all up and growing well. We gave them their first cultivation and hilling this week.







The sugar snap peas are also doing well - shaping up to be perhaps one of our best crops ever. Germination this year was very good and the plants have thrived in this cool spring. We finished putting up the trellis net this week and cultivating between the rows. The first seeding has been flowering for a week or so, and is just starting to form pea pods. It won't be long before they are ready to pick, probably another two weeks. I can't wait for that first sweet snap, a sure sign that summer is really here.