Rainy week on the farm & back at the Wednesday market

For seven weeks from late February through early April there was no rainfall on the farm but in the last 10 days we’ve gotten two inches of rain.

Over the last couple of days it has rained just under an inch and last week there was 1 1/8 inches of rain.

The rain has meant that we have not needed to irrigate much in the last week which is a great reprieve after everything needed to be irrigated often during the hot month of March.

Coupled with the longer days and nice temperatures the plants are growing quickly being able to easily access all the water right where their roots are.

It has been gentle rains for the most part with the heavy winds stressing out the plants the most part.

After such a busy couple of weeks getting everything planted with the warm weather the rain helped us take a step back to and get even more prepped for when it gets even busier on the farm.

The rain pushed back some of our plantings and hopefully we get them in the ground tomorrow with the soil still having lots of moisture in it. Ideally enough of the water infiltrates into the ground so that when we are walking in the field it isn’t too muddy.

Along with planting there will be lots of weeding to be done on the crops that are already in the ground as the rain will help another round of weed seeds germinate in the soil and grow quickly with the temperatures warming up.

Starting today, Wednesday April 22, we are back at the Wednesday Davis Farmers Market in Central Park. The hours are 4-8 pm as Picnic in the Park started in April this year and runs through August.

It is a great opportunity to do a midweek restock of your fridge with the freshest veggies possible as we pick them that morning.

All the leafy greens are shining in this weather and growing so fast their leaves are so tender. They have so many uses and are perfect whether they are cooked or eaten raw.

For the brassicas they take longer and they are getting ever so close with the first of the broccolini producing their small heads before they start growing the long, tender shoots.

Today is Earth Day to celebrate and support environmental protection. We are grateful to get to experience what makes nature so special and how vital it is to protect it for all of us and every future generation.

We rely on the environment to help us grow healthy and delicious food so all of us can be healthy while keeping the environment striving by avoiding using any chemicals that damage the soil, water or air.

Due to the absurdly warm March the fig tree thought that summer was here and decided it was time to have the fruit start growing.

The last couple of weeks we have watched as the figs get bigger even as the temperatures have cooled down a little bit. Luckily it very unlikely to get cold enough to damage the figs and lose some of them so it looks like we will have a good amount relatively early this year.