If you haven't seen photos of the flooding in Upper Marlboro, you should definitely check them out: Washington Post slideshow- DC area flooding. Fortunately, the farm is on much higher ground. Some of our fields are flooded, but the driveways are all passable, the barns are dry, and we don't expect any long-term damage from this particular rain event. Our van is currently stuck in a field, and we're planning to get it out sometime Sunday or Monday. Our pick-up is stranded at a mechanic's and surrounded (but not in) flood waters. We'll be using Michael's truck for our harvest tomorrow, but can't drive it to many of our fields, so we'll be lugging a lot of bins on foot. I never like walking in mud to pick the crops, since that damages soil structure, but it's not worth cancelling the share for that reason alone, since the soil can recover.
Getting to and from the farm: We haven't had any trouble driving down Old Marlboro Pike to Route 4 toward Washington and Suitland Parkway. Likewise it's clear driving down Ritchie-Marlboro Rd to the beltway. If you're coming from Route 301, or any other points east on Rte. 4, you should check traffic reports and map out your route carefully.
We were parched dry this summer and now we've barely had a break from the rain since the drought broke in mid-August. Every day for the last 3 days my rain guage has overflowed at 5 inches. Climate change has been rough on Clagett Farm this year, but looking at the news, it feels like we've been lucky.
Given all the rain (and rain, and rain, and rain), I thought it would be a good time to take a break in the office and give all of you an update on your crops.
- Sweet potatoes are looking terrific. There's still two groundhogs (down from 5) eating up a corner of one of the fields, but the fence has kept the deer out. The potatoes are about 2-4 inches long right now, and growing. We expect to dig them up in about a month.
- Lettuce, spinach and spicy mix in our early August planting didn't germinate because it was too dry. We re-seeded just before it rained and they germinated abundantly. Right now they look good but small. Two weeks-worth of sun and you'll have heaps of salad. Of course they may have washed away since I last looked, but I think they're probably OK.
- Kale and collards grow a bit more slowly. About a third of them germinated well even in the dry weather, and that's what we're harvesting now. We re-seeded the rest, and it won't be ready for 3 more weeks (assuming the sun comes out at some point).
- Broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage: We've had some trouble with our greenhouse seedlings this year, and we think we might finally have diagnosed the problem. We purchase compost for our soil mix from a neighbor who uses horse manure and straw bedding. This has worked well for us for years, so at first we didn't think that was the reason why many of our seeds weren't germinating. There is an herbicide that some farmers use on their hay fields (especially hay for horses) that we've recently learned is so persistent that it can still kill our seedlings after it's been through the horse's digestive tract and then through a compost pile for over a year. We were surprised to hear about this, and think it might be why we've had such poor seed germination with our tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage. We've already prepared our own compost for next spring's seedlings from our own cow manure which will be 100% herbicide-free. So I'm hoping we've solved the problem going forward. In the meantime, we ordered organic broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage seedlings from a nursery. By the time we ordered them, we knew they would be planted about a month late, and now with the rain they will be even later. I'm just hoping they'll make heads before the season ends.
- Carrots, turnips and radishes: As always, the radishes and turnips are growing like gangbusters, and the carrots have been slow and sparse. I'm pretty bitter about it, and so are the turnips.
- Squash and cucumbers: Wet weather is horrible for squash and apparently a hurricane is even worse. So the winter squash are dead (including pumpkins). The last planting of summer squash and cucumbers should be fruiting right now, but I think those have probably kicked the dust in the last couple days.
- Beans: This has been the craziest year for beans ever. Most years we'll plant beans 3-4 times over the summer, and we get beans from each planting for about 3-4 weeks. We started harvesting from our first planting (the one in D field near the okra) in late June. Then the plants quit producing in late July when the fields dried up. Then in August we got rain and they kicked in again with a new lease on life. Our second planting flowered for a month in the drought with no beans, no beans, no beans, and then...BAM! BEANS! We've been picking them for a couple weeks now and I don't think we've picked all the way through any of the rows yet. PLEASE COME PICK BEANS!! We just can't keep up. It takes about 5-10 minutes to pick a pound, which is easy, right? But for us to give all 430 shares a half pound each it takes 24 hours. Even with a crew of 5, that can take most of our two harvest days, and doesn't leave much time to scrounge around for the last tomatoes or hunt for fallen tomatillos. The most ridiculous part of this is that by mid-August we hadn't had many beans this summer, so we planted a third succession. They've just started to flower...
- Tomatoes usually thrive in dry weather, so we don't tend to irrigate until we're desperate. We got desperate in August, and laying drip tape in that field was on the top of my to-do list. Then it started raining and hasn't quit since. They put out a heroic number of pounds in August, but the rain quickened their natural decline from the diseases they accumulate over the course of the summer. So they're basically done. We'll see what we can get from the plants over the next few weeks. Then we'll strip off the green tomatoes, pull out the stakes and twine and till them in. When you see those green tomatoes in your share, you'll know that's the end.
- Eggplants and peppers are still poking along. They don't suffer as much disease pressure as tomatoes do, but stink bugs have been a nuisance. We should continue having eggplants, peppers (and more stink bugs) through the end of September. The fruits are a little uglier these days, but if you close your eyes and you won't mind a bit.
- Chile peppers: There's a bunch out there and this year they are HOT. Help yourself! The little red ones dry very well. Hang them someplace in your kitchen and they will keep for years, if necessary. The others are easily frozen.
- Okra harvests will decline in the coming weeks, but the plants still look good and I'm sure we'll still be picking them until our first frost.
- Potatoes were a horrible disaster. The last 2 years I thought we had found a good technique to plant the seed potatoes deeper, which led to higher yields. But this year we planted them even deeper, and then the spring was a bit cooler and wetter than normal and I think they rotted. So now I've learned the hard way that 1 foot deep is TOO DEEP. We found exactly 10 pounds after an afternoon of digging in the first field. So we abandoned that field, tilled in the weeds and planted a cover crop (which is now about to wash away, of course--that field has been mocking me all summer!). We haven't looked in the second field yet, which might be a little better, but might I'm not counting on it.
- Swiss chard: These plants sit dormant in the heat of summer, and now they should be re-growing. They have a disease called leaf spot which makes their leaves unappealing (but otherwise fine to eat). We're hoping that the cooler weather will reduce the disease and increase leaf growth, so there will be some nice leaves to pick for your share.
- Herb and flower beds: We had this big plan for a volunteer crew that would plant, weed and water that space all summer. But it was way too much work for them. We have a new plan for next year that will involve much more woven plastic weed barrier. In the meantime, please accept our apologies. The flowers were especially hard-hit. Three bright spots: lemongrass grew well and multiplied, so we can plant even more next year; and a few rosemary plants look good. We've got our fingers crossed that the rosemary will survive the winter, and we can use them to start many more plants to give out in shares and/or plant in our herb beds. Also, this has been a great year for basil. We planted them extra-early, and though they have started to tire out a little, I think we'll have basil all the way until our first frost. There's still time, if you haven't yet stocked your freezer with pesto for winter (or if your freezer thawed after the hurricane black-outs).
- Cows: Beef isn't part of your CSA share, but some of you know and love the cows. So I thought I would give you an update on them, as well. They calved very well this year, and all have been quite healthy. But unlike most years, Michael will have to purchase a lot of hay, since they haven't been able to cut hay since July--first because the grass wouldn't grow without rain, and then because we haven't had three consecutive dry days to cut and bale it.
Overall, I'm surprised to be standing, to be honest. It has been a tough weather year, and I've made some difficult mistakes. But I think your shares have been pretty good--not as big as last year, but we've had good variety and some terrific you-pick tomatoes. And there's still time for some nice fall salads and sweet potato pie. Or another hurricane. Who can tell?
Your farmer,
Carrie
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