Greetings from Dancing Hen Farm and Welcome to CSA Week 5!
How about last weekend?
Finally a weekend without an inch or two of rain. I actually had to water the potted plants I
have on our patio, but I am not complaining.
It looks as though we may be entering a bit of a drier pattern with the
weather. Today is beautiful, sunny, with
low humidity. A nice break!
The wet June has had a huge effect on most farmers in our
region. Those of us that grow vegetables
are struggling with disease and weeds.
Framers growing field corn, soybeans and small grains are also
struggling. If corn was planted early
enough, the June rains have treated it well and it is pushing 6 feet tall and
already in tassel! Late planted corn is
struggling with too much water and yellowing in the fields. The same is true with soybeans, many bean
fields in our area are simply yellowing and dying from too much water. Grass or hay farmers are probably having some
of the biggest challenges this year. The
super dry May caused fields to stop growing and then the constant rain of June
left farmers unable to mow and bale their hay.
This weekend the hay fields around our farm were buzzing with activity
as farmers tried to get mowing, raking and baling done in the short window of
dry weather. This hay is essential for
farmers to feed their animals during the winter and this coming winter there
may very well be a shortage of hay and many farmers may be scrambling to find
feed for their animals.
Speaking of animals.
Our pigs continue to enjoy this wet weather. They love the mud and the weeds growing in
their pasture. Our pigs also enjoy all
of our vegetable scraps. Tuesday is a
big day for them, as all the trimmings from Mondays harvest are collected in a
large blue bin. It is fun to watch how
excited the pigs get when they see the bin being hefted from the back of the
truck. Right now their favorite seems to
be Chinese Cabbage. Later in the fall we
will pick apples from orchard to feed them, another pig favorite.
Tomatoes. Our
tomatoes in our greenhouse and in the field are looking good right now. It will not be long before we see some ripe
cherry tomatoes from our greenhouse and our field tomatoes are flowering and
forming fruit. All this is great, but
the weather, rain, rain, rain, has been worrisome for tomatoes this year. Each year, I do a bit of a public service
announcement concerning late blight and it is time again to talk about this
devastating disease. Late blight is a
fungus which attacks tomatoes and potatoes and to a lesser extent eggplant and
pepper (any plant in the nightshade or Solanaceae family). Late blight is actually the disease
responsible for the Irish Potato Famine in the 1800’s. I remember in college, my plant pathology
professor doing a lecture on plant diseases in history and of course late
blight was a main topic. But, back to
the disease. We do not currently have
any late blight symptoms on our farm, however yesterday was an almost perfect
day for late blight. The temperatures
were cool, it was cloudy and there was a wind from the west. I took a walk at lunch and we still had dew
on the grass. Late blight, being a
fungus, think mushrooms, needs moisture to grow, so heavy long lasting dew or
moisture from rain showers, allows the fungus plenty of time to infest
plants. After my walk, I checked out a
late blight map on the internet and late blight has now been confirmed in
Pennsylvania, in Erie County. Erie
County is to our west. Most of our winds
come from the west and therefore will be spreading the spores from west to
east. Late blight is a true community
disease, as the spores are spread on the wind from farm to farm, garden to farm
or even patio tomato to farm. In all
likely hood, there are more cases of late blight in the state then have been
reported to cooperative extension offices.
At Dancing Hen Farm, we are again very worried about our tomato
crop. Most conventional, non-organic,
growers rely heavily on synthetic fungicides to control late blight. Even with these fungicides, many growers
still see an almost complete loss of their tomato crop on years with favorable
blight weather conditions. For organic
farms, like Dancing Hen Farm, our arsenal of weapons to control this disease is
very limited. Most organic farmers, us
included, use a combination of copper (an organic approved control method) and
plant resistance. Unfortunately, we
often still lose our tomato crops when blight conditions are favorable. Our plants were sprayed with copper when they
were planted and we will continue with periodic applications as the season and
weather progresses. We also have some
tomato varieties with variable late blight resistance planted. These are hybrid tomatoes (NOT GMO’s) which
have been bred and selected by the plant breeders because they have showed some
resistance to blight in field trials.
Wow! Plant genetics, hybrids, GMO’s, and heirloom varieties
– a topic for a later newsletter! For
now let’s continue with late blight.
Now for the public announcement part of my late blight
rant. As I said above, late blight is a
true community disease. Please take a
moment to learn what the symptoms of late blight are. If you see these symptoms on your garden
tomatoes, please bag them and dispose of them in the garbage. Here is a link to the actual USA late blight
page http://usablight.org/. By navigating through the menu at the top you
can view pictures of the disease. Here
is an informative Penn State publication about late blight in the home garden. http://extension.psu.edu/publications/ul215
Ok, I am off of my late blight soap box for this
newsletter. But, I doubt this is the
last you will hear about blight this year.
Keep our tomato crop in your thoughts and keep your fingers crossed for days
like today, sunny and dry!
Back on the farm.
Just as our peas are starting to wind down, our beans are starting to
ripen. Plenty of beans to come, so get
your recipes ready. Summer squash are
growing and producing. Our first planting
was mowed down this weekend, we are harvesting from our second planting and our
third planting has flowers and small fruit already forming. The basil is still looking really nice this
year. Second and third planting of Asian
Greens and lettuce are in the ground now and should be ready for harvest in the
next few weeks. Our broccoli is looking
good. We have had the broccoli plants
covered to protect them from flea beetles and now we will need to watch for
later season insects, the cabbage looper and diamond back moth. The second planting of cucumbers is trying
desperately to survive the groundhog attacks and we have high hopes for a good
harvest here. Our first planting of
cucumbers, in the greenhouse, is starting to wind down. Peppers are coming along slowly. Fennel should be coming our soon, we lost
some of our early bed to deer, but our second bed is growing nicely.
This week’s selections will offer some surprises. As many of you know, we work closely with
neighboring farmers and often purchase product from them to supplement our own
crops. This week we will be offering
some produce grown by John Jaramillo at Nut Creek Farm in Danville. John uses organic methods on his farm and is
certified Naturally Grown. You will see
John’s cherry tomatoes on the pick list.
These cherry tomatoes are an orange/yellow cherry, very similar to
sungolds. John also grows a variety of
Italian green bean. These are a flat
bean, cook them like a traditional green bean, being careful not to overcook
them.
Farmer Don and I actually had a social engagement last
evening, which is some of the reason this newsletter is arriving a bit
late. We spent the evening with a group
of other local organic growers at the Blind Pig Kitchen in Bloomsburg. It is always nice to swap stories and trade
knowledge with other growers. Thanks to
Justin at Old Tioga Farm for coordinating the event. And thanks to Sarah and Toby at Blind Pig for
hosting and feeding our sometimes rowdy group.
This week in the kitchen we again have not been too
adventurous, making mostly comfort food with homegrown ingredients. In other words, meat and potato type
meals. Pork chops on the grill with foil
packet potatoes and lightly cooked snap peas.
Grilled chicken with red potatoes cooked with garlic and chard and
steamed wax beans seasoned with butter and lemon thyme. The potato and chard dish is an easy and
tasty way to use these two ingredients.
Simply saute some garlic (or garlic scapes) in some olive oil, keep the
temperature low to allow the oil to become flavored by the garlic, but to avoid
burning the garlic. As the garlic is cooking,
boil your potatoes in some salted water until just tender. Add the chard stems to the garlic and oil and
allow them to soften. Next add the
potatoes and chard, some salt and red pepper flakes. Continue cooking until the potatoes can be
slightly smashed in the pan the chard is cooked.
A note on boxes and choice.
The window for choosing the items for your box opens on Thursdays at 6
pm and closes Sundays at 6 pm. All boxes
are labeled on one end with your name and those of you who have chosen items
should find a pack list inside with your picks.
If you do not choose items for a week, don’t worry, you will still
receive a box of veggies. This box will
be what we call a Farmer’s Choice box. We
do re-use our share boxes, so please treat them gently and please return them
each week. We also reuse egg cartons and
green berry boxes. These items can be
left with your box at your pick up site.
This week marks the opening of the Back Mountain Memorial
Library Market. The market has moved to
the Dallas Elementary School. The hours
remain the same, 9 am to 2 pm. Please
stop by and say hello to Farmers Don and Phil.
We will have veggies, eggs, chicken and pork for sale. Get there early for the best selection!
Thank you again for your support of our small family farm
and local agriculture. Have a great week
and enjoy those veggies.
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