Now THIS is what farming is all about!

HARVEST:

And crops growing crazy big:

And finding out we have our own little Cabbage Patch doll in our summer squash:

OK, maybe Chad just put Sadie into a squash plant, but we can pretend.

I have been out of the field for a while, so everything looks so amazing to me! The squash are massive, and both rounds of corn are looking great, and our cucumbers are starting to take off, and I just can’t believe we started all those tomatoes from seeds:

Now if they would only turn red… At this point, our definition of the color red is changing to be more…well, green with a hint of orange. But when you haven’t had a real honest to goodness tomato in 8 months, then yes. That definitely becomes red.

We are going into our 5th week of our CSA with potatoes, green beans, the last of the turnips, and the beginning of massive amounts of summer squash. We are selling more lettuce mix to a local restaurant, and we got another shareholder for our CSA–so we are up to 8 1/2 boxes a week! And I have 2 more weeks before I can be a full participant in the field work, but that is kind of OK because look who I get to hang out with instead:

Pretty cute, huh?

Squash of Summer & Sunburn

A quick post to brag and show some sunburn.

UFO Squash:

The side with Shade:

Shady Side

Without SPF 50

But the color we’re really waiting for is RED (and orange, pink, purple, “black”, and blood…) Talking about tomatoes of course. Our Thai Pink Eggs are probably going to be the first ones to transition, as they already have a slight pink hue to them. But the others are just gaining in size.

Meanwhile, it’s yellow and green with peppers and squash. We’re snagging the sunburned ones for ourselves as they aren’t good enough for our loyal CSA members. A quick brainstorm also decided that for next year we’ll use a fertilizer with a bit more N in it to promote leaf growth for shade on those blazing afternoons.

Irrigation continues to twease our peace with busts and the like. The t-tape is doing well, but our hops will need tending to. We replaced a giant stretch with our last geyser because the water pressure had expanded the line almost a full size (we could fit the new line into the old one). Then a few days later, that line blew while Ben was in the shower soaped up, so a quick rinse and a curse and a walk down to the field revealed that the hops will have to be watered with hose until the replacements arrive. A friendly call to our irrigation peeps got us the information that we should turn the whole system off at the well-house. 300′ of bunk irrigation tube later, we call that a valuable lesson.

Other than that, it’s hot, smoky from area wildfires, and tomorrow we’re gonna float down the river a bit before a fun family bar-b-que. Chad’s making pork belly.

Irrigation Schmirigation… and an article

Just a quick update here as things are still in full swing and the heat wipes us out man! It sure takes a lot out of you when you have to get up extra early to start the watering and try to accomplish as much as you can before the sun beats you down. Chad finds himself up at 5:00 am with time to water in peace. The fields are on for two hours of drip irrigation… then when its off there’s a little time for repairing tiny puppy teeth

holes in the drip tape. We’ve had a few blows when joints pop out of their connections, which are a pain, but still easy enough to fix. Then one day Gabe was coming home and spotted a good sized geyser. Old Faithful.

When stuff like this happens we have to drop all of our master plans and take however long it takes to fix the damn thing. Water is that important with the heat we’ve been having. But our irrigation problems are common so at least we have that going for us.

The potatoes are looking really good now, so we’re putting those in our CSA baskets this week, and we think we have enough eight ball squashes for everyone and the last of the radishes for now. And we’re finally into the summer herbs – with enough basil to go around and some other tasty things.

Chad and Gabrielle are also featured in an article from the OSU (Oregon State University) Agriculture Weekly, along with some farmer friends over at Blue Fox Farm. Check it out here. And while you’re at it check out Blue Fox Farm’s blog.

And Sadie is growing.