Early Sunrise Mornings

Sunrise over the farm

I (Anna) was up early this morning, due to Julia's determination to ruin all hopes of a good night's sleep. It was very early.  Early enough to watch the sunrise after the coffee had finished perking in the french press.   The glow of the greenhouses caught my eye and I could hardly change lenses quick enough to keep up with the rising sun.

Farmer Vince, on the other hand, has been up almost this early these past few weeks just because there are so many time-sensitive things to do right now.  If there is daylight you might as well use it, right?  Saturday and Monday morning CSA deliveries needing to be ready at 10am sandwich the Sunday market for which we also need to be ready by 10.  These early mornings are fueled by our desire (and need) to harvest most everything the morning we sell it.  This may change a bit when we have refrigeration some day.  On the bright side, (pun intended) up-with-the-sun mornings sure beat harvesting-by-headlamp mornings.  Needless to say, we will really enjoy our weekends "off" come the second half of November.  

Farming by the Weather

Rain is so important, but at the right times. Last year, June was so wet we felt so far behind.   And with all that great rain come the other plants that like the hydration: weeds. If it's too wet, we can't get in the fields to weed without ruining the soil.  By the time we can get out there, we are searching for carrots with a magnifying glass. (Hence an increasing number of crops we are transplanting rather than direct-seeding.)

That's a lot of lush spring green...

This June feels a little better.  I think Vince had a farmer's tan in May already.

Here is Vince's quote this evening. I can't promise to be exact, but as his wife, I guess I can use my literary license to get as close to the real quote as possible:  

"It's funny how when you're farming, the weather seems so important now.  I wanted it to rain today [like it was expected to] but not until I got my seeds in the ground. Now that I got them in, I want it to really rain. A good rain. But not so hard that it washes my seeds away.  It doesn't matter what the weather is doing, it is never good enough."  

By the way- he was out seeding until it was too dark to see the rows last night- all because he knew it might rain today.    Farming by the weather. Maybe I should have called it farming with the weather. 

Fruit! Berries, Cherries, and Kiwi to name a few...

As much as we love all kinds of vegetables and get excited when it is time to harvest something for the first time each season, for some reason, fruit steals the show every time. Oh- that reason is probably our sweet tooth. Or teeth, should I say, as the whole family- and most of our customers- seem to have this love affair with sugar.

We ate our first strawberries out of the field last night.  That is what got me (Anna) started on this fruit tangent. The strawberries were a little on the sour side, but that didn't bother the kids at all. Fruit is fruit. Although, to offer perspective, rhubarb (no, not a fruit),  is eaten straight out of the garden by our kids. They walk around gnawing on a stalk. Now that's sour.

This is not the row we ate from. These are new plantings that we will hopefully harvest in the fall.

Kiwi ready to flower

Vince tightens the wire that makes the kiwi trellis.

One fruit we are excited to harvest for the first time is kiwi. They have been growing up this trellis for the past three years and hopefully, with enough pollination, they will bear fruit this year.

See a June, 2011 post about the trellis.

We're working to increase the amount of fruit in our fields.  Our little orchard trees, while finally protected from the deer, won't bear fruit for a while yet. Berries are a little quicker.   This big bunch of blueberry plants has been prepped to be planted, but Vince is rethinking the space where he wanted to plant them.  While moist ground is good, it seems a little too wet and he is worried about lack of drainage from the area.  So they sit happily in their pots, waiting.

We can't wait for the cherries to ripen. Every day the kids check to see that they're still small, hard and green. And the minute they are big, soft and red we will have to fight the birds for them.  There was an Asian pear tree, two huge cherry trees and two plum trees near the house when we moved in. They were a bit out of control, so it has taken a few years of pruning to get them to where we might be able to reach some of the fruit.
The battle with the birds is not new to us. Here is a post related to netting this very tree.