Our first heatwave is here, and it’s no surprise that they are coming earlier and happening more frequently than ever before. Because of the recent heat we’ve been having, coupled with a less than ideal amount of rain, we ended up harvesting our entire first seeding of spring spinach last Friday because it was beginning to bolt. We try to make sure your veggies are as fresh as possible, but we also know you wouldn’t want to miss out on this delicious crop!
We only just started harvesting vegetables that prefer cooler weather, including crops that are not capable of handling warmer temperatures. Signs of heat stress in plants include wilting, dry or papery leaves and bolting. Bolting is when a plant begins to produce a flower in an effort to make seeds because it knows it isn’t going to live much longer. If this begins to happen, we try to harvest the crop as soon as possible.
In addition to the high temperatures, we’ve recently had less rain than we’d prefer. Back in 2021, the fundraising campaign focused on raising funds to help update our irrigation equipment. Because of all your generous gifts, we’ve made huge improvements to our irrigation systems that have truly helped with the overall efficiency of our set up. In addition to this, we applied for federal funding to install a well at the back of the farm. Each farm that receives this funding must also partake in one year of irrigation water management. This means we are expected to make three recordings of our soil moisture at two locations on the farm each week for one year.
Each site gets two soil probes. One is placed in the ground at 6”- 12” and the other at 12”- 24” deep. We then use a digital meter to get readings from the probes and record the readings before and after irrigation. If it rains, we record the amount of rainfall from a rain gauge indicating that irrigation isn’t necessary. These tools will be extremely helpful in determining how we should prioritize where we irrigate. I plan on making a video once we start using the probes and learn how to interpret the results.
Until next time,
Ember