We have a lot to communicate about the field conditions this week so we will be catching you up on general farm news and updates next week.
If you communicated with the CSA Manager or Share Room Manager and you are planning on taking the voluntary week hiatus, please do not pick up a share this week.
Field updates:Cabbage
Carrots
Kale
Onions
Scallions
Potatoes
Cucumbers
Squash
Boy, what a week. If it were not for the growing chance of cooler, wetter weather today I don’t know if we would have had the morale to make it through. We have watched with thirsty anticipation as the percent chance of rain slowly inched up. Today is supposed to be the big day but the wet stuff just refuses to come. When I last checked the accumulation expectation was down to less than a tenth of an inch. This is a pretty big blow. On the positive side it seems that the heat has finally broken and in many ways this is as important as getting rain. We have been holding off on transplanting and seeding fall crops for as long as possible in fear that they would be instantly killed. Yesterday we were finally able to transplant our broccoli and we are working on cabbage, cauliflower and kale today. It takes between 60 and 90 days for most of these crops to mature so we are cutting it a little close. I took a closer look at our melons, eggplant, peppers and tomatoes this week as well. The melons are showing signs of fatigue in spite of receiving a large amount of irrigation. Fortunately it looks like quite a bit of the fruit set before the heat wave began. The melons look a little puny but there are plenty of them. It looks like the fruit sets on the eggplant, peppers and tomatoes are a little more erratic but most of the plants look healthy. The summer and winter squash have been similarly impacted. The lettuce looks so good that deer have begun staging raids through our fencing. We have been forced to construct a secondary fence within the first to protect our lettuce. Unfortunately our plan to get the deer to pay for this project failed.
I mentioned earlier that the heat wave coming to an end is almost as important as getting rain. This is because most of the vegetables that we grow do not thrive when the weather is consistently above 85 degrees during the day time. Long season, fruiting plants (melons, squash, tomatoes, etc.) will terminate fertile flowers above this temperature in a bid to conserve energy for a more favorable time. Cool weather loving, short season plants (lettuce, greens, etc) tend to “bolt”, that is to become fibrous, bitter and go to seed, when the weather becomes too hot because their shorter life cycle doesn’t give them the opportunity to wait out unfavorable conditions. Obviously the hot weather has resulted in more rapid moisture loss as well. Fortunately it does not look like we will be returning to 85+ degree weather anytime soon. With luck we will be able to catch up on watering a little bit and our plants will respond favorably.
To summarize the bad news: our summer crops aren’t producing as much as they normally would be and some lower priority crops have succumbed. Even if we get an inch of rain today things aren’t going to go back to normal over night. Our staple fall crops have gone into the ground later in the season than we would normally like and some may not have the time to mature. There isn’t much we can do about the summer crops other than adding this hiatus and riding it out but we can and are taking steps in an effort to safeguard our fall harvests. First, we are beefing up our plans for faster growing fall crops. We will be growing extra greens, spinach, turnips, beets, winter radish, napa cabbage, kale and others. We may also try sowing extra carrots although it is a little late to be seeding those. I know these might not be as popular as broccoli or cauliflower but they are solid, tasty and quick maturing crops. Secondly we will be attempting to transplant more of these crops rather than direct seed them. This will give us a greater degree of control over germination and maturation since we can’t afford to wait for the weather to favor us. Finally we will be turning to our neighboring farms as we have done in years past to help us fill in any gaps that might pop up in the share. This may be a bit tricky since most other local farms are going through a very similar ordeal right now but it is certainly worth the try. It is a little early to say how this will impact the fall share which we offer each year but the main season CSA is our first priority.
Looking forward it seems as though this may not be the last hot, dry summer that we see. I have been having lots of conversations with other farmers this week both about how they are trying to manage this drought and how they are thinking about dealing with future drought conditions. Sometimes it takes a minor disaster to rouse us to action and I think we may have some opportunities to further improve our well, irrigation system and other core infrastructure for next season. Many people have written to me this week offering their support and help in dealing with our water troubles. Some have even offered to port water in! While I don’t believe anything short of a long, steady, soaking rain will have a noticeable immediate impact, there is something that anyone and everyone can do to help.
We will be putting out a mid season survey sometime in the next several weeks. Your responses to this survey will be reviewed not only by myself but also by the Appleton General Manager, Engagement Manager and the Statewide Agriculture Program Manager as well as several others. Your feedback on this survey is important for two reasons. First, just by responding you can show that you are invested in the CSA program and that its future is important to you. Second, this is a chance for you to directly advocate for the CSA program. The Trustees is a large organization and capital reinvestment funds are distributed based on a number of criteria. The CSA has grown quite a bit over the years and reinvestment in the program hasn´t always kept pace. Your collective voice will make a large impact and you can use this chance to say “Yes we do care about the Appleton CSA program and we would like to see investments in its future stability.” This year we are dealing with drought but next year we will likely be dealing with some new crisis. We need to be proactive about potential weaknesses in the CSA program. Yes this takes hard work from the farm staff and resources from the organization but most importantly it requires the will from our CSA members to see the farm succeed. You are core supporters of Appleton Farms and The Trustees and your voices are powerful.
Volunteer Opportunities: For more information email appletonfarms@thetrustees.org
Flower Fields Volunteers: Thursday, Friday or Saturday mornings with Olivia. Weeding, watering, planting, and making flower bouquets for the farm store.
Food Festival Volunteers: Opportunities include set up, break down, decorating, slicing cheese samples, parking, welcome and registration, and more. Work a shift and enjoy the rest of the festival for free. We promise this will be a fun time and we really need your help!
More Upcoming Events and Programs:
Graze the North Shore Food Festival
Join us for our first local food festival! On Saturday, August 20th, Appleton Farms will host Graze the North Shore, a food festival with local farmers, chefs, brewers, vintners and food enthusiasts for a day of summertime feasting. Graze your way through this one-of-a-kind summer event featuring generous tastings of local food, beer and wine, a pig roast, farm tours, cheese sampling, and live music by the Jason Spooner Band. Attendees will experience a true farmer to chef experience among the rolling pastures and historic barns here at Appleton Farms.
Tickets include all samples and must be purchased in advance. This event is 21+. IDs will be checked at the gate as well as by breweries and vintners. Full size beverages can be purchased directly from our vendors. Rain or shine. Buy your tickets now
Taking part are our friends from the following restaurants, breweries, and vintners:
Restaurants:Grassy Roots, Wenham, Eva's Butcher Shop, Danvers, A & B Burger, Beverly, Foreign Affairs, Manchester, Vidalias, Beverly Farms, Ipswich Clambake, Ipswich, Naumkeag Ordinary, Salem, Gulu Gulu Café, Salem, Flying Saucer Pizza Company, Salem , Flatbread, Georgetown, Kim Gregory Pure Pastry, Beverly, Tatiana’s Treats, North Andover
Breweries and Vintners:Old Planters, Beverly, Newburyport Brewing Company, Newburyport, Alfalfa Winery, Topsfield, Far From the Tree, Salem, Ipswich Ale, Ipswich, 1634 Meadery, Ipswich
We expect to host an additional 5-10 food and beverage crafters in addition to those above. Think your product or business would be a great fit for our event? Email Kathryn at appletoncooks@thetrustees.org
Farm camp, Rise and Shine, Fun in the Farmyard, and Carrot Club continue each week! Find all the details and registration at www.thetrustees.org
