Hi all,
First a correction to the last newsletter: There is no Easton market tomorrow – the start has been postponed to next Saturday, May 26th from 10am-2pm. The market is located in a field on Depot St about ¼ mile from 5 corners. There should be good signage directing you to the market once you’re in the general area. We’ll still be at the Hingham Farmers’ Market tomorrow from 9-1pm, so if you’re looking for fresh veggies (or some time at the beach!) head down to 96 Otis St in Hingham and say hello.
We’ve been busy the past couple weeks trying to schedule farm activities so that they coincide with the varying weather. Generally, there are certain items you save for sunny days and others that wait for cloudy ones. Sunny days often mean weeding (or as farmers say “cultivating,” which makes it sound more glamorous). When it’s hot and dry, turned-up weeds don’t have a chance to re-root and so perish in the sun. Sunny days are also a great opportunity for working with the plants themselves since disease has a much tougher time spreading from plant to plant when the foliage is dry. Cloudy weather offers other benefits – both harvesting and transplanting are easier and more successful if the harvested items or young plants aren’t contending with the sun’s drying-out power. And rainy days are great to water-in what was previously seeded or transplanted. When I direct seed salad mix, arugula, or other crops, I try to time it such that it precedes a rainy day so that I know the seeds will be watered in a timely manner and so more uniformly germinate. Now on any given day you can look at the weather forecast and figure out what we’re doing!
So what’s happening on the farm? This week we transplanted over 400 heirloom and cherry tomato plants into the field. They’re all sitting tight under rowcover for now (it’s been dropping to the low 40s at night) but soon they’ll be uncovered and begin to take over their section of the field. Some of the cherry tomato plant foliage smells fruity and it was a pleasant day imagining the first tomatoes ripening on the plant and then landing in my mouth. This week we also transplanted our field cucumbers and expect the first fruit come the end of June. Last but not least, we’ve been pruning the flowers from our everbearing strawberries. Though the tiny plants want to set fruit, the small leaves won’t be able to photosynthesize enough energy to both produce fruit and grow as a plant. We’ll prune the flowers until the 4th of July, and by then the plants should have grown enough to be able to handle the serious fruitloads we’re expecting.
Thank for reading, and remember no Easton market tomorrow!
Best,
Adam
Nick pruning in our big tunnel
The crew “cultivating” some beets
