Clagett Farm

Farm Fall Festival

Thank you for a wonderful fall festival. The day was cool, overcast and at times drizzly, but that did not dampen anyone's spirit. Many of the activities took place inside our main barn, which felt cozy, cheerful and warm from the buzz of all the people, the food, the warm cider and the live music from the steel drum band.

And yet the weather did not deter people from going outside and take hay rides led in turns by Michael Heller and Craig Highfield. From all appearances, people had a great time.

Some of the many hay riders (picture snapped by Kenji.)

Shareholders may seldom hear about Julie Adkisson and Susan Topping, both of the Capital Area Food Bank, but much of the work done for the CSA, the Anacostia Farmers Market, and the farm volunteer groups is done by them. And in keeping with this, the fact that the fall festival was such an enjoyable experience to so many people owes a lot to the dedication of Julie and Susan.

Incidentally, shareholder and friend of the farm Fred Delventhal kindly sent us a link for a series of photos he took during the festival. To see his pictures, click here.

And let me finish this post with one of Fred's fall festival photos.

And more photos

I got tired of playing catch up, so this evening I uploaded to our photo album all the pictures that passed muster. This means that I'll have a clean slate during the fall festival. In addition to the photos I mentioned in the previous post, Clagett Farm Photos: 2005 now has 21 more photos--including a couple of beautiful sunset pictures taken by no-nonsense volunteer Deborah Starobin-Armstrong. If you have already seen the photos I talked about in the previous post, you may want to start with photo 78  and continue on until photo 98. Enjoy!

Photos added to our album

I'm still running behind but I just added 19 photos to Clagett Farm Photos: 2005, our online photo album. You probably have seen many smaller versions of these photos when they were published in this weblog. Some of the pictures you have not seen, however. In addition, these new album photos are larger than previous album photos. If enough people prefer the smaller photos (it depends on your screen size), I'll go back to them--but you'll have to let me know.

To view the album beginning from the new pictures, click here on picture 59 and then on "next" to move on. Incidentally, pictures 76 and 77 are satellite photos of the farm. Even though they were probably taken in late winter or early spring a few years ago (the new greenhouse and high tunnel do not appear), if you are familiar with Clagett Farm you'll be able to recognize certain distinct features of the farm. 

Festival plans in case of rain

We've heard there's a good chance of scattered showers on Saturday. It's likely that it won't rain between noon and 3pm, but in case it does, we still plan to enjoy ourselves, although perhaps in a more intimate atmosphere. If it's actively raining, the band, auction, and all the food will be moved into the Education barn. We'll have kid's activities in the barn, as well. And if anyone is interested, we'll be separating garlic cloves so they can be planted next week. If it stops raining, we'll head back outside for the hayrides, bike tour, and games, as planned. See you then!

Love Those Okra...

From Roshani

Hello everyone,

Hope you all enjoyed the great okra harvest this year!  These critters sure did...

Sweet potato crop

Today for the first time since the very welcome rains we were able to use our potato digger to harvest sweet potatoes. Last week the soil was too wet so instead of a tractor we used forks and elbow grease to dig out the sweet potatoes. Below we see Kenji using the potato digger on a row that was already dug out. It was a quick second pass to make sure that we didn't miss any the first time. As you can see from the photo, the second pass yielded almost nothing.

The sweet potato crop this year is a meager one, especially when compared to last year. I guess the weather had a lot to do with it. In addition, deer consumed many of the sweet potato vines, which, of course, had a major impact on our yields. In contrast to other farms, we usually do not experience much deer pressure, but this year we did. Everything is interrelated: the dry weather forced the deer to look for food in new places and, alas, they found the vines and liked them.

Black widows

As we mentioned before in this weblog, black widow spiders are fond of pumpkins and winter squashes. Not as food, but as shelter--on the underside. So when harvesting pumpkins and winter squashes, it's a good idea to  check for black widows. They are rather timid with humans (after all, we are somewhat larger than they are) and would only bite if a person touches one. And yes, they are poisonous, but rarely deadly. In the US the last known death from a black widow bite took place over ten years ago.

While harvesting winter squash last Friday I was not that successful in my attempts to photograph a black widow spider. Despite the poor focus, here are the two best pictures. The photo on the right shows the underside of the black widow with its telltale red hourglass. Below you can see the spider as it usually looks when seen from above. Incidentally, the newly homeless spider scurried away to safety. If you get a carnival squash in this week's share, it could well be the former home of this poor spider.

   

Farm Festival next week!

Bring something to auction (closes at 2:30),
bring a bike to ride for the bike tour (2pm),
bring something to share for the potluck (noon to 2pm),
and bring your wallet, so you can bid for something in the auction!
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 22nd  rain or shine

Future greens

This grasshopper is enjoying the baby arugula bed. And in a couple of weeks it will be the shareholders turn to enjoy the arugula growing in this bed. In addition, our spinach, spicy mix, lettuce, turnips and radishes are doing well and we hope shareholders will end this CSA season enjoying their fresh greens.   

Rainy harvest

Well, I guess the drought is over. After experiencing the driest September in over 120 years, we got some rain last Friday, and then some more, and then more and more. By Sunday our rain gage showed that in about 48 hours we had about 4.5 inches of precipitation. Much less than in other parts of this area, but definitely a lot of water. With this rain we already surpassed by over 40 percent October's average rainfall.

Because of the rain and the mud, harvesting last Saturday was quite challenging. And yet six hardy worksharers took part in the harvest. It is interesting how working under such conditions (driving rain, boot-sucking mud, and so on) usually infuses the whole team with a spirit of cheerful camaraderie.

What to expect in the rest of your shares

Many people have wondered what remains of their share this fall, especially given these dry conditions. Let me give you my best guess.

We should expect a small to moderate harvest of sweet potatoes, which we're planning to begin next week. You will probably also get a few more butternut squash, and lots more garlic. Your broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower survived being transplanted, but they have been very slow to grow, and the deer and groundhogs have been using them and the sweet potato greens as an emergency fuel now that the dry weather is stunting their usual clover diet. Perhaps they will produce small heads in October, or perhaps they will wait and produce bigger ones in November--it's hard to say. The kale and collards are doing surprisingly well under the circumstances. Everyone should continue getting a half pound or so each week, and much more if it ever begins raining again. They also get a bit sweeter once the first frost hits.

Your baby mustard greens, lettuce, spinach, arugula, carrots, beets, cilantro, dill, radishes and turnips were planted in August in two fields--a small one that can be irrigated and a large one that cannot. We have not had a soaking rain since then, so nothing has germinated in the large field. Only a bit of arugula, baby mustards, turnips and radishes have matured in the small field, and we will be doling them out carefully to everyone in October. In September, when our grim circumstances were becoming apparent, we tore out some poorly-producing squash and cucumbers and dug some more beds near the washing station so we could seed more greens and roots that could be irrigated. They have all since germinated in happy abundance, but I don't think they will be ready to harvest until November. Carrots and beets need so long to mature that it didn't make sense to replant them, so I'm sorry to say that this is going to be a carrot and beet-free fall.

We still have some beans, cucumbers, summer squash, peppers, eggplants and okra. You might have noticed that these summer crops slow down their production as the weather cools (the dry weather is contributing to their slow-down, as well). All of the summer crops die abruptly with the first frost, which usually comes in early or mid-October. It's been unusually warm, though, so perhaps we'll keep them a little longer.

We have planned for your last shares to be November 8 and 12. November 18 and 19 (the Friday and Saturday before Thanksgiving) will be the gleaning weekend when you can pick all you want of what remains. I don't think we'll need to make any changes to that schedule, but we'll certainly keep you informed if we do.

Autumn is usually my favorite season, and the farm's most abundant one. It saddens me to have to eek out such a small share to everyone this October. I deeply appreciate how understanding everyone has been. Our customers seem to be taking this dry spell in stride, and that helps me relax and keep a better perspective on the viscicitudes of farming.

Vanishing farms

Do you like this view? We do too. It's of a farm bordering Clagett Farm. Enjoy the view while you can, because the farm in the picture above was sold to developers. Construction will start in not too long.

Visitors to Clagett Farm marvel at how rural and peaceful the scenery is at the farm, even though is only a few miles from Washington, DC. As more and more farms are being sold to developers, this contrast will be much starker in the not so distant future. Clagett Farm will be a green oasis in a sea of developments.

Lola: farm volunteer and world class bike courier

Lola Rodden is one of our volunteers. We love the way she jumps into a task even if she has never done it before: transplanting brassicas, harvesting summer squash, or double digging a clayey bed with hand tools (spade and fork). We knew that Lola is a DC bike messenger who also spends part of her summers as a service group guide in Costa Rica. Lola never told us, however, that she's also a great competitor. We found out that in July she was a participant in the 2005 Cycle Messenger World Championship (CMWC) held in New York. Top bike couriers from all over the world took part in the championship. Along with hundreds of others, Lola raced in the main event and after a grueling 2 hours and 17 minutes she won second place in the women's final. Jojo Reeder from Sweden came in first and Christine Pacheco from Seattle was third. Thus Lola is the top American among female bike couriers.

The 2006 CMWC will be held in Sidney, Australia. Lola intends to be there.

Nasturtium: flowers and leaves

Those who come to the farm to pick up their shares probably have seen our small nasturtium bed in front of the wash station. The bed is too small to distribute in our regular shares, but we've noticed that even though nasturtiums are in the U-Pick list shareholders almost never pick them. Please do so before they are zapped by a killer frost. Nasturtiums flowers are edible. They add color to a salad and have a mild cress-like spiciness. The leaves are also edible. Although they are stronger tasting than the flowers, a few nasturtium leaves are a great addition to a salad. 

Driest September in over a 120 years

On the farm it's not news that it's still dry out there, but it was interesting to read in the Washington Post that "the Washington area experienced the driest September in more than a century, and the heat and dearth of rain have produced parched lawns, dusty schoolyards and withered gardens." The article goes on to say that according to National Weather Service data this September was drier than the one of 1884, which held the record until a few days ago. To read the whole article, go to A Bone-Dry September's Wilting Toll.

As we mentioned before, August was rather dry, too. The August rainfall at the Reagan National Airport was only 68 percent of normal, but then it was only 3 percent of normal in September. This drought (as it was already officially labeled) is having a negative effect on our crops. You will still be getting yummy veggies in your shares, just not as much as is usual at this time of the year.

Let's hope for rain this week.