Hungry Hollow Happenings: Early Spring
The months that usher us from Spring into Summer are a bit of a whirlwind on the farm.
From May into June, the rhythms of winter and spring we so easily accustomed ourselves to become interrupted with a bustle of new activity. As if in response to the erratic weather patterns we’ve seen this year, our farm activities these past few months have been something resembling “organized chaos.”
Around April, we notice a steady and palpable ramp-up of activity and excitement. The “natural” world begins waking up from a collective winter slumber - bees buzzing, trees leafing, flowers blooming, allergies acting - and so we begin preparing for a steady schedule of transplanting into the summer. The first hint of warm air blows in, the sun wakes us up a bit earlier and eases us into evening a bit later, the soil begins to warm, and with that we plant our first tomatoes and watermelon of the year. And then, almost overnight, things start whirring.
All of a sudden (it seems), we are juggling asparagus and snap pea harvests (and this year, the food bank harvests!), cultivating our newly transplanted crops, preparing beds for more plantings, installing and repairing irrigation systems, irrigating, working on direct seeding various summer and fall crops, staying on schedule for planting, monitoring and managing pests and fertility needs, all the while thinking about successes from last years crops and changes we want to make this time around.
Farming, as I’m sure I’ve said before, can transport you into many different “time zones,” all in a day's work. While you’re planting for the present crop, you’re also experiencing the effects of the last season's crop, reflecting on the various failures and successes, managing rotations, working with and around the weather forecasts, all while you think ahead to what needs to be planned out and acted on for a successful season to come. It can be overwhelming at times (considering what was once, to succeed in what is now, and plan for what will be…), but it’s also part of the magic that keeps us going. There are so many mysteries to what makes for a successful crop and we are as hungry for knowledge as we are for good tomatoes.
This year, we are organizing our tomato plantings a little differently - grouping different varieties together in different blocks in hopes that it will help with harvest ease and disease/pest management. We adjusted our crop plan by changing the total acreage, adding some new-to-us varieties, and taking out some that just didn’t meet the mark last year. We’re trying new techniques with our pollinator plantings (again). In our planting practices we’ve adjusted and altered our irrigation and pre cultivation methods and timing - this one we’re still fine-tuning (and may always be adjusting depending on the year).
One success story we’ve had was with our winter squash planting. After losing a few direct seeded blocks of cucumbers and zucchini in the battle against hungry darkling and cucumber beetles, we realized that our irrigation practices might be part of the issue. We had been overhead irrigating (sprinklers) after seeding to water in and germinate the seeds. This process, though, depending on soil type and weather conditions, can create a crust on the upper layer of the soil, which (as luck would have it) becomes the perfect hiding place for beetles. As the crust begins to crack from the pressure of emerging seedlings, the beetles gain a hide-out and a feast all-in-one.
The beetles, hidden in the cracks from our watchful eyes, devour the seedlings as soon as they emerge - not even offering us a chance at protecting the young plants. To combat this, we experimented with using exclusively the underground drip tape to germinate the seeds. After planting, we ran the drip until the water “subbed up” to the seeds. This method takes a little longer to get the water exactly where we want it, but the results were incredible! We had our best stand (number of plants) yet (which was especially good news given we had a limited amount of seed for a certain winter squash variety!). Now, the beetles are still present, but with the plants making it up and out of the ground before being munched we have a better chance at protecting them.
To protect the young winter squash (and other cucurbits - melons, zucchini, cucumbers), we spray a water-soluble clay product on their leaves, which acts as a protectant against predatory beetles. The clay shields the plants, almost creating an invisibility cloak; if a bold beetle does chew on it, we have mixed in diatomaceous earth, which acts as a deterrent - negatively affecting the beetles’ chewing mouthparts. (The images below show the winter squash seedlings just emerging on the left, and after a spray of clay on the right.) As with all things, getting a successful stand of winter squash is a pressing combination of what is happening, what could happen, what did happen, what we want to happen, and how!
Back to the rest of the farm - the winter barley has been harvested for hay and grain, our final planting of cherry tomatoes is in the ground (that makes 5 total), we’ve already started harvesting the first of the tomatoes (!!), we’re still working on planting the last half of our ten watermelon successions, monitoring our growing crops for pests and diseases, cultivating growing crops and preparing fields for new plantings, we’re harvesting the last of the spring crops while planting summer crops for the food bank and working on a plan for their fall produce needs, we’ve packed up the asparagus packing line and are setting up the packing house and cooler for summer, and getting our kitchen and appetites ready for the season’s coming bounty.
Thanks for joining along in the journey - we hope you’re as excited for our produce as we are.
First thing I’ll cook with the cherry tomatoes? This pasta dish: