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| From SHF CSA |
Here's a photo of the farm last Thursday morning when I arrived. I haven't had much time recently to update the blog, and truthfully I don't really today either, but I will. Recently my posts have been limited to a quick photo at lunch after harvest and then a few notes on the share typed on my phone. Today I get to sit in front of a computer and load a few extra photos.
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| From SHF CSA |
One of the carrots we harvested last week was 3/4 lb. After I took this shot I found a larger, although not quite as photogenic carrot. Carrots get really big if you give them space and we had thinned this planting earlier in the year, although not all the carrots had as much space to grow as this one.
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| From SHF CSA |
There was a bit of wind at the farm two weekends ago when it rained and the popcorn was knocked over, as well as a bit of our bean and tomato trellising. We propped the trellises up but the corn will have to mature on its side. Unfortunately we also noticed a bit of deer nibbling. The most effective option, an 8' fence, is out of the question so we'll protect as many greens as possible with row cover as soon as we can round up enough. We may get a bit of blood meal to hang as a deterrent, as they dislike the smell. Blood meal is a byproduct of the slaughter houses. It's steam sterilized and ground into a meal and is high in nitrogen so it is commonly used as a fertilizer on organic farms. We use another slaughter house byproduct, feather meal, which is a bit cheaper but supplies the same nitrogen.
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| From SHF CSA |
These are some of the chicories we'll have in the fall shares. We've switched to transplanting and I'm very happy with the results. It's a bit more work up front, having to take care of the starts and hand seed flats, but we get much better weed control and even spacing, which leads to more even maturity. The two pictured above are frissee and radicchio. With the cool fall weather these should blanch quite nicely and come out sweet with none of the bitterness associated with chicories grown in the warm season. They're a favorite of the deer so we'll be sure to protect them soon.
We have the deer problem here too, and the high fence is out of the question, so we have started placing the heavy duty plastic deer netting over the rows. When we tried row cover, the deer and elk just punctured the cover and got stuck and ran off taking pieces of row cover with them. I purchased the netting at Coastal, it is UV resistant, and has held up for 5 years so far with out any sign of deterioration. Hope this helps :)
ReplyDeleteWe're using row cover right now. It was the right price, salvaged pieces from a larger farm and it's also providing a little warmth (or will be when it cools off). It does have a tendency to blow though and it's hard to see what's going on underneath so I like the netting idea. I wonder if they won't walk on it? Would just a wide perimeter work to keep them out?
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