Russo Family Farms

There are several ditches on the farm that connect to a larger creek at the far end of the farm. The shallow ditches allow the soil to drain when it is waterlogged from rain. Our ditches had not been reworked in at least 5 years, which has not been a major issue. We hired a professional to clear out the large ditch that was starting to get dammed with weeds, but thought it might be good practice to work on the small ditches. We rented an excavator, and with the help of a landscaping friend, tried digging out the small ditch.

About an hour later, a blue pickup truck rumbles into the driveway. He was mildly amused with our ditching efforts, went to take a look, and then patiently explained why we were doing everything all wrong. The friend soundly agreed, as he had only progressed 10 feet in an hour. The small drainage ditches are meant to be v-shaped and 2 feet deep and not the Panama Canal. When dug vertically, the sides erode, slide down and widens.

1000 990 feet and eight hours later, we have a weed-free drainage ditch again. The friend probably won’t be volunteering to help on the farm for the remainder of this season.

Early Mar started out dry and cool, so I thought it would be perfect to jump start cold-weather vegetables such as kale, spinach, and radishes. Three dry weeks later, not much has sprouted.

In March planning the new season begins in earnest. Having tractored the plots in the fall, the ground looks pretty good. Usually March is cold and too soggy to work the soil, but this dry winter allows us to begin sooner.

I will try planting cool-weather crops in mid-March and see how the early start goes this year. Lettuce, radish, kale, chives, dill, cilantro can tolerate some light frosts and are fast growers.

Fuhgeddabout the California drought, it has been dry here too folks. Mid March and not much rain. I hemmed and hawwed about a bit of rain during the week and decided not to go ahead and rent that excavator to dig out some drainage ditches. Instead, Dan tackled some tractor maintenance.

Note the helpful warning signs on the engine? I did notice some exposed wires and had I not been distracted by plants, would have hunted down some black electrical tape and wrapped all those wires. Do you think I should turtle wax the tractor? (New info for me, people DO indeed wax their tractors.)

Here are the garlic sprouts, heralding the start of 2016 growing season. They asiatic garlic types sprouted very early, around November, and then the cold may have damaged it. I saw browned dead-looking plants, but maybe it will recover still.

A couple runs on the tractor and I was able to plant seeds! The soil was dry, fluffy, and ready for the season. It took me more time to walk back and forth to position stakes, lay out the mason line and adjust the length, than to actually seed the 3 rows.

There was one big ‘ole blizzard in Jan 2016, then it was warm again. (I’m pretty sure the scallions and daikon radishes at the farm are still growing.) This winter was completely different from the polar vortex of 2014 (remember that dreadful term) and snow-every-3 days of 2015.

Spring is so far yet so near, a fact made obvious by the seed catalogues arriving en masse. What will be the vegetable lineup this year? What will we try this year? what have we learned from the last two seasons?

1. If it’s indeed a warmer spring, start seeding cool weather crops in early April (radish, kale, lettuce, sugar snap peas)
2. Re-establish the herb area (chives, dill, cilantro)
3. Seed shorter lengths every 2 weeks to reduce bulk harvest and establish continuous crops

In anticipation of 2016 growing season!

Easter Egg Radishes

The quick fall chill cast means closing up the season at the farm. But I’ve already got a new plan for next year, bees! We’re reaching out to hobbyists to help us keep bees next year. Even if we don’t get much honey, at the very least, we’re providing a home for these hard working guys.

As a result, I went around collecting milkweed pods and harvesting the seed. The pod is alien-looking, and when opened, allows wind to carry away seeds on fluffy white puffs. The white filament is soft and has great loft. Before synthetic insulation, these were used for life preserver fill during World War II.

Milkweed Pods

Seeds With Built-in Transport Mechanism

Fluff

The thing about fall is that every week is a gamble with nature. Will it rain too much, will the hurricane come close, will it drop to freezing at night, will groundhogs eat at the squashes, can we let the squash mature for another week.

The delicata squash usually shows up early at farmer’s markets. Its small size is the perfect introduction to winter squashes if you have never ventured outside of pre-cut butternut.

Golden Nugget – These were bred to be a substitute for sweet potatoes in short growing season areas. They are like candy.

Better Bet It’s A Butternut – Want a tip for safer butternut processing? Buy a peeler, and peal the tough rind.

Cushaw – Apparently these are favored in the south, and cooks bake it with brown sugar.

Pink Banana – There was a recent story about Winnipeg students who revived an extinct squash with 800 year old seeds. When I saw the picture, my farmer-sense went “yeah, it’s a pink banana that came from mesoamerica via native populations”. My marketing mind went “how do we make this the next new kale”.

Naples Long – This is the funniest thing I’ve grown so far. It’s the length of an adult torso, weights as much as a toddler, and is beloved by groundhogs. Not that I advocate wasting a perfectly good food, but would be great to carve up for halloween!

Ready for Pumpkin Season

Summer is coming to a close for most folks, and parents look toward the start of the school year. The farm season now shifts into high gear for winter squashes. The first of our decorative pumpkins is just about ready! The summer squash season should be easing out, and at the size that we let them go to, they complement the winter squashes quite well.

Tomato Nest

The tomato plants are a wild mess of vines, leaves and fruit. Since it’s late in the season and the nights are noticeably cooler, I have started to prune the overgrowth and attempt to concentrate the plant toward ripening existing tomatoes.

(include video) Always curious about how things work, I took on an introductory cleanup of a tractor implement. Removing bolts the size of cigar, cleaning out the dirt, adjusting the 3-point hitch – I was loving it.

Totally Skeeved Out By This

Then I saw this monstrosity, the size of a cigar, hanging on for dear life on the pruned tomato plants. It skeeved me out but I had to stare at its organic shape, pattern, the hook on its butt and the terrifying tiny pinhole eyes. ** shudder ** I tossed the whole thing a few feet away, hoping that the sun would dessicate it. Looking at this picture sends a shiver up my spine. Reading up on the tomato hook worm now, I should have dispatched it more vigorously and permanently. Stay tuned.

Revival Oregano

The herb rows suffered this year and was neglected, until now. I uncovered oregano that grew despite all odds but not all herbs made it through. This year, we’ll have some Parsley Sage Rosemary but no Thyme.

Sweet Thai Basil

Basil

Italian basil grew fabulously. Thai basil made a decent showing. Holy basil did not sprout at all.

Popcorn

See the red tassels on the popcorn? Now we wait for the plant to dry out and wait for the first frost to come.

Where potato plants once thrived, are nothing but tall weeds. Last year we never weeded and lost track of the potatos until almost November. This year, we harvest early.

Now some bad news. Edamame soybeans, which require a long growing season, were planted into a long row so that we could make an attempt at tractor weeding…. the magnificently fuzzy bean pods which attract forager…. the thrill of harvesting an organic batch…. met an untimely end under the tractor mower. It survived the in-row weeds, the lack of tractor weeding, and side by side weeds for almost 90 days.

Surprise, we may get a few watermelon after all.

Looking forward to a pumpkin patch soon. There are many different decorative varieties as well as eating varieties.

Garlic, First 2 rows

Some were huge, some were rinkydink, some had a broken stalk, some had overmatured and opened up, some were white, some were brilliant purple. Digging them up, keeping them in varietal order, sorting for size and tying in bunches during the hottest most humid weekend of the year, made for a serious backache. The beautiful stinky rose!