(CSA Newsletter: Week 15)
Meet this week’s vegetables:
This spring has not been the most extreme we’ve experienced here in Oregon (so far!), but it has been cooler and wetter than average. We haven’t had many periods of dry weather long enough to allow for the ground to dry out and us to have a few days to work ground and plant. Normally, at this point, we’ve had at least one extremely hot spell with temperatures in the 90°s or above. Nothing even close yet this year.
In validation of our experience, we heard on OPB this morning (Monday) that farmers in Washington state have actually been losing crops because of the cold wet weather. Wow! That makes us feel very grateful for how the spring has been going on our farm.
As you’ll have noticed, however, the last two weeks have been mostly dry (with the last week being mostly warm). This extended dry streak was the big motivation for planting, planting, planting over the same time period. The weather websites kept predicting rain, so Casey and crew kept planting as much as possible, fearing that the next minute, hour or day would shut down our work for another few days or weeks.
Fortunately, the weather websites were wrong! There were a few drizzles, but the ground stayed dry enough for us to finish a big chunk of our spring planting. Since our last CSA pick-up, Casey and the crew planted the leeks, Brussels sprouts, celery root, carrots, head lettuce, salad mix, and fennel.
And, of course, then it stayed dry. So, we’ve been irrigating! We especially needed to irrigate once the warmer weather arrived. Once again, we are deeply grateful for our functioning irrigation system (if you haven’t been in the CSA long, we had major issues with irrigation for our first three years — enough problems that it was a constant source of stress until late 2008 when it was finally resolved).
The combination of warm dry weather and plentiful irrigation finally finally finally made the fields ‘pop’ up the way we expect in spring. Greens visibly grew in just one day; the peas had to be trellised several times (and are putting out blossoms!); and the weeds have arrived in force. It’s wonderful to see plants grow and thrive after watching them ‘hang out’ for several weeks in the cooler weather.
We’re also finally finally finally mostly ‘caught up’ with the urgent work — for now. Casey actually had some downtime (although not yet a full day off). We went up to Portland for a gathering at Laurelhurst park and marveled at the huge numbers of people outside soaking up the beautiful weather.
Now the weather websites say rain is returning for at least this week. And, this time, I think they’re right, since it’s raining steadily right now. Since we can relax more about our big plantings (for now), we’re going to enjoy this period of rain. It will very likely be one of the last before summer arrives in earnest and we’re sweating away the days!
Enjoy this week’s vegetables!
Your farmers, Katie & Casey Kulla
