Rain, rain, go away!

Welcome to the first week of the fall CSA!  While the contents of the shares are still summery at the moment, lots of fall vegetables are on the way.  We had hoped to have arugula and mixed mustard greens in the shares for Wednesday, but hurricane Laura set things back a bit.  Saturday shares can look forward to greens, and Wednesday members will see them next week.  As soon as it dries out a bit, we’ll dig up some sweet potatoes and see if they are ready to harvest.

Rain, rain, go away!

I don’t want to dwell too long on the effects of all the rain from hurricane Laura, but it is impacting the shares this week.   The good news is that we didn’t have any infrastructure damage and we are all safe and well.  The okra is thrilled with the rain and is growing with wild abandon.  But the eggplant and long beans slowed significantly.  The zucchini, which was just getting started last week, has ground to a halt and is besieged by powdery mildew.  The wind tossed and flopped the tomatoes, which were already under pressure from army worms, and a lot of fruit has split.  I will be amazed if the cantaloupe survives that volume of rain, but I don’t yet know for sure.  The watermelon made it through unscathed, I think, and may be ready as early as next week.  I was so happy with how our little late summer garden was looking.  But we can’t control the weather, and we just get to take the cards we are dealt.

Goat meat back in stock soon

Last Thursday I took 12 goats to the processor.  They have been rather stubborn about getting in the trailer lately, so I built some sorting pens out of t-posts and cattle panel.  It worked well.  I loaded the 12 goats easily enough, but in the process five of the goats from the remainder of the herd escaped and got to wander around the farm for a day and a half before I managed to get them back into their paddock.  Between building the pens and taking the goats to the processor in Starkville, it was a big part of my week.  But it is done and we are hugely relieved.  We’ve been nearly out of goat meat for a while and were having difficulty scheduling with our processors.

The whole affair was a huge improvement over last year, when one of our goats escaped at the processor.  I spent two hours chasing the goat all over the Mississippi State campus with the help of the staff of the Meat Lab.  Ultimately someone from the campus farm caught the goat by leaping off of an ATV and tackling her rodeo style.  It was so stressful and utterly mortifying that I undertook my trip this year with some added anxiety.  This time, thankfully, the goats were unloaded without incident.

My favorite farm task

There are so many different tasks I undertake in the field.  Care to guess what my absolute favorite field job is?  There is a lot of choose from: seeding, transplanting, hoeing, flame weeding, trellising, mulching, spraying, harvesting, setting up irrigation, making beds, covering and uncovering beds with tarps and row cover….  Out of all this, I think my favorite field task is taking down the tomato trellis.

I don’t know why I find it so satisfying, but I really do!  First I cut and pull out all the twine used to hold up the tomatoes.  Then I pull out all the stakes and t-posts.  I love it.  I could take down trellis all day.  But I rarely get to.  It is an easy job, which means often other people get to do it while I take care of tasks that aren’t as simple.  But yesterday I got to spend a glorious hour taking down tomato trellis.  It is an important job, but rarely an urgent one.  Luckily for me, there is still plenty more trellis to take down.

Small Shares

• Juliet tomatoes
• Okra
• Butternut Squash
• Sweet Peppers
• Red Onion
• Basil

Full Shares

• Eggplant
• Okra
• Assorted Tomatoes
• Long Beans
• Butternut Squash
• Sweet Peppers
• Squash and/or Zucchini