Caring for crops in the hot weather as harvest continues

The false start to fall has passed and now we are back up to triple digits for the next two days meaning even more watering on the farm.

We already have most of the early fall crops planted in the fields and since they still have young roots that can’t find all the water underground we need to irrigate them more heavily with the higher temperatures.

If they are get stressed out from the heat and not enough water then it could cause issues for the growth of the plant and potential pests taking advantage of the stress.

In addition to seedling we have planted in the field we have also been doing a lot of direct seeding and many of them are germinating now.

This heat is challenging for the seeds to germinate as most of them don’t like hot soil and if the soil dries out the seeds won’t have the water they need to germinate.

Since the middle of July we have been seeding lettuce in trays in the greenhouse and we will continue to do so for another months. Getting the seeds germinating and growing is crucial so we can plan then before the days get too short causing a big slow down in growth.

The first two plantings of lettuce are in the ground and growing, while we wait until after the heat to get the third planting in the ground.

As the calendar flipped to September we are starting to see some color out in the winter squash field including some of the Honeynut starting to turn orange. They have been growing all summer long and it won’t be much longer until we get started on the harvest.

While a lot of our focus is starting to turn to fall veggies we are still tending to our summer veggies, including the second planting of shishito peppers. They are looking great and are producing lots of delicious peppers that people are enjoying at the markets.

Having been born on a farm we were born with a connection to the land through our barefeet running around on it getting all dirty and muddy before getting sprayed by a hose to clean off.

We don’t run around getting dirty anymore but having fun out in nature enjoying the delightfulness of what Mother Earth provides is special.

People have always been connected to the land but in the last couple of generations more people have shifted to living in the city. They still want to learn and read about the almost indescribable connection between people and the land so they often turned to the writings of Wendell Berry.

The author, poet, activist and farmer was a champion of small farms, eating good food, the environment and local communities. He passed away last week at 92.

Berry always spoke about how small family farms are essential to the fabric of local communities and help sustain local economies which he viewed as a healthier, more eco-friendly way of life.

Conserving the soil was key to everything for Berry and it guided him in all the decisions he made.

“The soil is the great connector of lives, the source and destination of all. It is the healer and restorer and resurrector, by which disease passes into health, age into youth, death into life. Without proper care for it we can have no community, because without proper care for it we can have no life.”

― Wendell Berry, The Unsettling of America: Culture & Agriculture