Rain! Field update.

Hooray!  We've now had two good, soaking rains--one last Monday, and another yesterday.  Everyone's mood is lifted here.  But quite a bit of damage has already been done, and I thought it was worth another update.  I know this message is long, so if you want the summary: a lot of your crops died, life continues. 

• Sweet potatoes are gone.  They grew so slowly that they couldn't withstand the onslaught of deer that were recently displaced from the housing development next door.  I've never seen so many deer tracks in one field!  I don't think we'll get significant control over the deer population until this winter, so we replaced the crop in that field with a last minute planting of winter and summer squash, which they don't seem to like as much.
• About one third of the winter squash field (which includes pumpkins, butternuts, spaghetti squash, acorns, etc) germinated.  So what's there looks good, but the rest never came up because it was too dry.
  
• Our first two successions of sweet corn did not survive.  The third and fourth are ready this week.  They have substantially fewer ears than normal, but we're trying our best to get everyone one good ear. 
• We have two tomato fields.  One stopped producing completely for a while, and has now begun flowering again.  We were finally able to irrigate the second field, which has been plugging away like a champ. 
  
• I have been in awe of our summer squash fields.  Most years they are exceedingly susceptible to fungus and insect damage. We plant it five times so that as one succession dies, the next one begins producing.  Our 3rd and 4th successions never grew without any rain, but hallelujah, the 2nd one just keeps on kicking out fruit.  We just planted the 5th succession, so let's hope the 2nd round waits another month to kick the bucket. 
• We have never taken such special care with our eggplants, and they have never been so abundant. 
• Peppers were looking pretty sad in July, but now they are irrigated and looking much better.  The sweet Italia peppers have been especially tasty lately.  And we have a number of chile peppers we'll begin harvesting this week.  They've survived neglect and dry weather miraculously, and we should have quite a few poblano peppers for the share this week.  Get out your chiles rellenos and mole recipes!
• The garlic is still drying happily in the barn--you should get a head per week through November.   
• We have an extra garden bed of basil planted in front of where your cars park at the washing station, so ask us if you don't see it.  We have more than we can give away, apparently. 
  
• We ambitiously planted three different successions of 4 varieties of sunflowers this summer.  They were supposed to bloom one row at a time for 9 weeks.  But they were all too clever for me.  They waited and waited and then last Monday after our first rain in months, they ALL bloomed.  So please please please come pick sunflowers!  They're in the field beside just past the washing station all glowing yellow and black and happy as can be.  We've tried to bring some to Dupont but they don't travel well nor fit well in the van, so it's much better if you can make a little trip to pick them. 
• We plant beans and cucumbers in the same series of successions as summer squash.  The 2nd succession of beans has been producing in fits and starts, but still lives.  There's a good chance when these die, we'll have no more beans for the season.  Better luck next year.  Cucumbers fared even worse.  The second succession never began fruiting, and that looks like it for the year, unless our fifth succession finds a way to produce before the first frost. 
• Melons.  Like the sweet potatoes, what the drought hasn't taken, the deer and groundhogs have.  Not only do we have a higher population of animals than normal, but in dry years they can't find enough clover in the pastures so the vegetable fields usually ignore.    I still see some plants and they've begun flowering again, so maybe we'll get a few eventually.  There's a couple of volunteer melons at the washing station which get watered regularly and avoided by the shy deer.  Those fat melons have been taunting me--as if to prove what a little irrigation could have done if I had laid my plans better. 
• Considering our yield of potatoes in past years, I think this year they did quite well.  We're estimating we have enough this year for everyone to get a pound and a half each week for five weeks. 
• Okra is the most drought-resistant plant I've ever seen, once it gets established.  We have lots of healthy, productive plants that we'll be putting on the you-pick list soon.
• Of the fall crops that we are just now planting--broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, greens and roots--we're trying to increase our original plan to make up for the lack of sweet potatoes and winter squash. 
• Our strawberries are June-bearing, so why are we mentioning them now?  We planted next year's crop this spring and they've been hit hard.  We're investing significant cash in a fall-planted variety and the re-usable black plastic it gets planted into.  So there's still a chance we'll  recover.
• And just in case you thought plants were all we're growing this year, we are also expecting a baby.  Yours truly is pregnant, due in January!  Since I know terrifyingly little about how to grow humans, your advice and hand-me-downs are welcome.  I'm still trying to figure out how we'll include it in the share next year.  You-pick?

Happy rain, everyone.
-Carrie