Oh Crazy Weather

This is not a long, thoughtful post, just an update.  We did have a freeze (30 degrees) here at the farm last night, but it seems almost everything has survived just fine.  Only losses were herbs and grains that we had planted early because of warmer weather (basil, rice, and amaranth) and annual flowers, which I neglect terribly.  We have extra trays of basil, rice, and amaranth in the greenhouse, so it will be easy to re-plant.  I didn't really think we would get through April without at least a frost!  The really good news is that the strawberries (some of which have begun to blush) survived under frost cover! This sudden, and short-lived, burst of cold will also sweeten up greens and lettuces that become slightly bitter in hot weather.

What's growing this season

Welcome to the 2012 CSA Season!  The spring season for us has been consistently inconsistent.  Our best spring was 2010, cool to mild and fairly wet.  This is by far the warmest late winter and early spring that we have had so far, and despite the storms, the first spring that we have had to irrigate.  Due to dry spells and warm temperatures, we have irrigated off and on since our first plants went in the ground in early February.  We even lost some of our earliest (coldest weather) crops to the heat.  

However, this spring has allowed earlier plantings of many crops and our earliest CSA yet.  The chard, beets, lettuces, and spinach all look vibrant, and the strawberries are covered in thousands upon thousands of early blooms and developing fruit.  Because of the heat, we are also trying a few new herbs, vegetables, and varieties (new to us).  We have expanded our herb selection to include cutting celery, cumin seed, chamomile, epazote, purslane, holy basil, thai basil, chives, and garlic chives in addition to our most popular herbs (basil, cilantro, dill, parsley, thyme, rosemary, and oregano).  We switched green pea varieties to Green Arrow peas, which are supposed to be more heat tolerant, and are trying fava beans (in case they aren't!).  We are also trialing several new to us lettuce varieties - all of which seem to be doing really well.  We have already taste-tested two varieties (buttery Tennis Ball and crispy Red Sails), and we really liked both of them.  Also, because our arugula was struggling so much (first knocked out by a heavy storm and then toasted in the 85 degree heat), we have added a brassica mix to our spring selection as well as Yukina Savoy - a spoon mustard that is used a little bit like spinach.  We wish there were more varieties and vegetables that we could experiment with in the spring.  Our spring temperatures tend to be too warm for many traditional spring vegetables, and yet we have just enough cold nights to keep us from planting frost-sensitive crops.  After our really warm winter, it is tempting to think about planting some crops in the fall for spring harvest as is done in more temperate climates.  We definitely still have much to learn about growing early spring crops here in east TN!

The summer offers a lot more flexibility, especially in terms of the diversity of varieties available for each crop.  In addition to our standard varieties, we are trialing a lot of new summer varieties (mostly heirlooms), as well as more grain crops.  We are growing four heirloom dent corn varieties this season, including TN Red Cob (our standard), Cherokee White Flour, Bloody Butcher, and Black Aztec.  We are also growing several green bean and dry bean varieties, in search of varieties that produce well in hot, dry summers.  Similarly, we are planting a variety of heirloom tomato varieties throughout the season, looking for varieties that do well in our hot, dry summers and ones that continue to produce once it cools off in the fall.  Oh and melons...we were really frustrated last summer watching most of the Little Baby Flower watermelons we planted be eaten by skunks.  Although they are much loved and the perfect size for CSA bins, their rinds are just too thin.  Instead, we have planned to plant several new cantaloupe and watermelon varieties, as well as the other varieties that we planted last season.  After you all received last season’s pumpkins and rare winter squash varieties with such enthusiasm, we have also expanded our pumpkin and winter squash planting to include 8 heirloom varieties. 

The fall in TN, unlike our springs, tends to be bountiful and accommodates an enormous variety of vegetables and a significant number of varieties within those vegetables.  We are particularly excited about Romanesco cauliflower/broccoli, two heirloom varieties of cabbage, and several storage crops (an heirloom storage beet, as well as rutabagas, turnips, and parsnips).  Hopefully this season will be as abundant as the last!      

Welcome to the CSA!

Okay, so this isn't really a welcome message, but it is what has been on my mind lately.  I think I will be able to get to the welcome message once I share these thoughts with all of you.  Somehow it seems more honest.
It is easy to get down as a farmer.  Something is always struggling, and at times, it seems the whole frame blurs and all that I can focus on are the seedlings that got washed out by the rain or the cauliflower that is wilting in the unseasonable heat and fail to see the many other vegetables, fruits, and herbs that are flourishing.  The other night, feeling my lens focus in on a few of our spring frustrations, I turned to The Tall Woman, a point of reference which helps to ground me and readjust my lens.  In our world full of distractions that seem to so often take us from what is important as opposed to give us more time for them, I am grateful for Wilma Dykeman's straightforward telling of Lydia McQueen's life in Appalachia in the late 1800s.
There is a point in the story when Lydia McQueen, having just past a difficult winter alone with her children at her mountain farm, reflects on spring - on the rhythmic coming of life that those of us who experience seasons witness every year.  Many find a sense of renewal in spring, a fresh start; however, I find comfort and inspiration in Dykeman's slightly different take on the coming of spring.  At this point in the story, McQueen concludes of spring and herself, "Her spirit was the same.  Come what would, she would remember that spring, too, always came again."
When I walked amongst the fields this morning, I had to admit to myself that this will not be our best spring crop.  The heavy rains have made it difficult for early direct seeded crops (especially arugula, radishes, and spinach).  The peas and cole crops have struggled in our extremely warm winter and spring.  I would like things to be doing better - more like the beets and chard who seem to have found their paradise.  But in my walks and reading of The Tall Woman, I am reminded that this is life.  Some springs bring bountiful crops, and some bring struggle.  Some springs are for arugula, and some are for beets.  The hope of the farmer (and for man) is that next spring may be better - or maybe even this May.
However, what if Wilma Dykeman and Lydia McQueen and all those farmers who have come before us are wrong.  Farmers and therefore all of us depend on nature's cycles and rhythms.  I tend to be a person of action.  I may worry about a lot of things, but I try not to get lost in thought.  If I am going to ponder something, I'd at least like to get the broccoli hoed or the lettuce transplanted while I am at it.  Although we plan the farm out over the winter week by week, vegetable by vegetable, I think we would both say that at this point it has become more second nature.  Something in me just knows that when the beets are yay high we should be planting corn and when I no longer need a long-sleeve shirt in the morning it is time to plant summer vegetables.  However, this spring, I have found myself registering one of those mental messages as they were triggered by some observation and then realized things were off.  The rhythm around which we have operated over the last nine seasons no longer applied.  OR maybe it did.  Maybe we should have been planting tomatoes two weeks ago when some sign triggered my mind to think it was tomato planting time, but at the time, our tomatoes were mere seedlings - many weeks from field planting.  As farmers, we will adjust.  The past four seasons here (all very different) have required constant tweaking, but I do worry about the implications of these shifts for all of us.  I worry enough to find myself standing in a field on a warm, sunny day in late March pondering all of this when in years past we would have been scrambling on a day like today to plant our last spring crops.  This season, however, our spring crops have been planted for weeks, and we are ready to harvest.
These rhythms that Lydia McQueen and all of those who have lived in these hills and valleys have depended upon seem to be shifting, and I'm not sure that any of us are really ready.  As spring came, Lydia McQueen found strength to turn back to her life's work - to take care and at the same time make productive her little plot of land, her growing flock, and her family.  Although these changes have thrown us slightly off kilter, they have also called us to focus on our work, or perhaps better said they have confirmed that very work.