Thursday, July 21, 2016

Did We Go Dark? Not Really - It's Been Busy!

I have not posted as regularly through July, so I wanted to get the web presence back in order.

Photos tend to fill in alot of what I could say, so I will add a collage but I will say that the tremendous amount of rain we've received in July so far is incredible, maybe not record breaking, but incredible.  As of today, I have collected about 189 millimeters of rain in my rain gauge.  A friend of mine said that the average rainfall for July in Dryden is about 100mm, so we are WAY over average.  For most things, the rain has been beneficial, but for my meticulously planned field of veggies with the mulch and dripline to maximize growing, things have gone poorly!  Almost every cucumber plant has died, a majority of the squash is gone and all but 2 of the Purple Tomatillo plants have withered.  Ironically, the weeds still find a way to push the mulch out of the way and thrive.

On the upside of the farm, the greenhouses are doing well.  A few sessions in with the tomatoes keep them in good shape, peppers are flowering and fruiting now and the carrots and beets look good.  In my mechanically seeded carrot plot the carrots are thriving and should be market ready in August.  The potato field is ready with lots of delicious new spuds!  Finally, the late planted Brassicas (Cabbage, Kohlrabi, Cauliflower and Broccoli) are surviving and starting to produce.

We have been at the Cloverbelt Country Farmers Markets since early June, meeting with customers and like-minded vendors - it's been a great summer so far!

Below is a collage of photos that give some perspective of July at Pennerfarm and the Cloverbelt Country Farmers Market!

Loading up for Market

Veggies and weeds...

Tomato vines!

Heritage Tomato 

Hungarian Hot Peppers!

Lemon Grass, Beets, Herbs.

View from our booth.

Setting up our booth!

Our Early Veggies.

Across the booths.