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.