I skipped the farmers market today to catch up on fall seedings. We did not butcher chickens this week (did a few ducks and roosters), and the few frozen ones will keep or sell Saturday.
Colorado potato beetle larvae
The day started early spraying organically approved spinosad on potatoes where the Colorado potato beetles have gotten beyond hand picking. The aren’t like this on every plant. They hatch from eggs laid on the underside of leaves, so the plants that had eggs get hit, and then there may be a stretch of 25 or 50 feet with none.
Panic!!! The need to put copper on to protect against late blight had been coming to mind frequently, which generally means I need to do it. It looked like late blight had taken hold throughout the potatoes. This was strange since no one else around had reported it, since the hot sunny weather should have killed spores floating in the air, since I have no source of on farm innoculum, etc. But those brown areas on the stems sure looked like late blight. I bought my seed from a reputable source, but it looked like the blight was moving up from the tubers. When I looked more closely, the bad stems were damaged. When we hilled the potatoes we did a lot of damage. The potatoes rows were spaced 4 feet apart for the Cub to straddle with the plow, but Tony couldn’t get it started, so he cut an end off a blade that goes on the Kubota (36″ width, but the blade was wider). It was a choice of not hilling so having fewer potatoes, or hilling and knowing we’d damage some plants. I chose hilling. Apparently it took 3 or 4 weeks for the damaged stems under the soil to get infected with various pathogens that are around. The lesions weren’t as dark as late blight is. Thank you Amy Ivy for coming out and helping work through/confirm this theory. Whew! But that three hours of phone calls – to find the phone number of the person I can get copper from, to track Amy down early in the morning, etc.
The rest of the day I focused on seeding fall carrots, beets, and brassicas. I still have more to go, but need to prep more ground and it was a bit wet to till. This is the best seeding conditions I’ve had all year though and I didn’t want to miss the opportunity.
On to the CSA distribution: As I emailed earlier, Victoria Ainsworth is bringing kittens in hopes of finding them homes. We just put a cat down (liver failure) so will probably take two. Our current two were 6 months and probably a year old when we got them, and they have not bothered the chicks and ducklings, but I feel safer bringing kittens on to the farm.
Food: we picked and froze 20+ ziplocks of raspberries for you Monday, and I picked another 12 small pints this afternoon. Picking directly into the ziplocks was great. We could hold the bag in two little fingers of one hand, and have both hands available for holding canes and berries. I didn’t expect to have enough for everyone. My hope was to have enough tomatoes that you either get raspberries or tomatoes. I harvested tomatoes this evening and the tomatoes had really come along, so that will work.
We harvested 90 lbs of beans Tuesday, 37 lbs of cukes, and a lot of squash, so we are set in that department. I have a row of small butterhead lettuces, which I’ll try in the morning, but I suspect they are bitter from the heat. This heat has made all the lettuce around this area that I know of very bitter. There are some varieties more suited to heat, and I have some started, but they were planned for August harvest, and some fried in the pots in the heat.
Please let me explain my goals for your shares. If you paid by the end of February for a full share, it is $25/week. I want to give you at least $30 worth of product, based on our farmers market prices. So, raspberries are $6/pint at the market. I can give you half pints or non-heaping pints as one point. Tomatoes are $4/pound (same as grocery store organic or heirloom were last year). So at least 3/4 lb is worth a point. Cherry tomatoes are $4/pint, so I don’t need to worry about making a heaping pint. Zucchini is $1.50/lb for medium to large, or 50 cents each for the gourmet babies. A large zuke is close to $3. The first couple weeks we didn’t have enough to go around at that rate, so now we will try to be more generous with them. Herbs are $2/bunch at market, and the size varies throughout the season. I have been figuring $1.50 here. Sunflowers are $1 to $1.50/stem. Scallions were $3/bunch. Garlic scapes were anywhere from 4 for a dollar to my 10 for a dollar, hence 15 for a half point. Salad mix is $6/half pound. Last week I thought with the heat you wouldn’t want to cook so I bought enough that everyone could have 1 1/2 pounds. You aren’t that big of salad eaters. I will put a quarter pound of salad in a bowl and have it for breakfast.
If the CSA was our only market, then it would more a matter of dividing how much by how many, but I would still use the same guides in figuring how much to plan on. Last year I did a survey that included a question of how much value folks thought they got. One person said $15/week, but everyone else was in the $25 to $45 range, mostly at the high end. There are less expensive places to get produce, but I try to grow really good stuff, with growing practices that take more time and/or more plants. On the survey the major complaint was too much food, so I cut back on quantity this year, trying to balance how many members I can support at what price. I would love to be just a CSA rather than spending days away from the farm selling. I need a certain gross income, and to get that I’ll need either a longer production/sales season and/or at least twice as many members.
