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!