JULY:Pest Management, Farm Hacks & Friendly Fungi

Week of 07.01

The fava beans went from having a severe aphid infestation across the entire row in early June to being completely covered in dead aphids when I checked on July 1st. The aphids had all been parasitized by a fungus (Beauvaria bassiana) that was applied as a foliar spray three times over the course of the month. It ultimately took care of one of the worst aphid infestations I’ve seen in person, slowly but surely. 

Potatoes are starting to size up. Our potato patch is looking pretty solid this year, besides the usual potato beetle pressure. I've started going through each row with a five gallon bucket and shaking the foliage of each infested plant against the insides of the bucket, and have found that it's an effective way to gather a massive amount of the larvae to kill at once. By no means a be-all-end-all, but it’s a good way to knock them back a little bit. 

—Theo, Farm Crew

Week of 07.04

The tomatoes at Reeves are looking really healthy for the most part, but towards the back half of the field the health declines. According to Scott that back section was mistreated in the past, and was tilled far too deep down, fully inverting and compacting the soil at one point. Worth noting that when observing difference in vigor when approaching the end of that row. That will take a while to remediate, and will hopefully get better every year as we get more roots in the ground. 

More diversity on the farm: we found an interesting entity known as Dog Vomit Slime Mold growing out of some wood chips. As described, it's a type of slime mold that definitely resembles a pile of dog vomit. It looks like a fungus in many ways, but slime molds are actually not part of the fungal kingdom, they are part of the protista kingdom. Very interesting to see it in the garden. Not quite sure where that thing's place is in the ecosystem, but I'm happy to see more diversity popping up.

—Theo, Farm Crew

Week of 07.11

For a market farmer, winter is a time—at least in theory—to recover from the long summer days spent in the field and tackle the list of to-do projects for next growing season. While the construction of three new greenhouses was the main focus, there were other smaller projects that have been paying off big dividends this season. By following Michael Kilpatrick’s tutorials, I converted two washing machines into green spinners. Last season we washed all our greens by a 5 gallon hand spinner, which no doubt took up the most time in the wash/pack area. With the added space of the greenhouses and 30 or so new beds, it was simple math to see that this would be a big bottleneck for the coming season. So far, the green spinners have allowed us to produce and wash more greens than last year while taking up far less time. Not only does it require less people to be in the wash/pack, it ensures a better quality product by spinning the greens much faster than we could by hand and allows us to get it into the Coolbot quicker. With a little demolition and wiring 101 it’s no wonder these converted green spinners are a staple in market farming. 

—Seth, Farm Crew

Week of 07.18

For the first time since June the pest pressure has finally fallen below the economic threshold on the farm, generally speaking. The chard and eggplant beds in the greenhouse were the two most heavily populated areas for a while. The aphid population in both beds was way beyond the point of relying on native parasitoids. Two applications of Beauvaria bassiana (an entomopathogenic fungus) were made a week apart, followed by a release of green lacewing larvae a few days later. It took a couple weeks after that point, but now you would be hard-pressed to find a living aphid in those rows, and the lacewing larvae can still be found scouting the foliage of the eggplant, along with a whole slew of things like hover flies and other native wasps and parasitoids buzzing around, actively preventing another infestation.

—Theo, Farm Crew

Weed of 07.25

We’ve been getting back into the workflow of prepping beds – lots of beds are being flipped and prepped simultaneously, and I’m looking forward to seeing them fill up with fall crops. 

While raking and weeding the beds I’ve been noticing a lot more fungal hyphae running through the top couple inches of soil than I ever have in that field over the past 3 years, along with more little things like centipedes, rove beetles and other predatory bugs/ nutrient cyclers. A good sign that our soil is slowly but surely advancing in ecological succession. Hopefully the weeds will begin to lose some of their vigor in the coming years. 

—Theo, Farm Crew

JUNE: First Harvests, Pests, Compost Tea, Weeds & Paying Attention

Week of 06.01
The farm is starting to feel alive in every sense—we’ve got some of the first harvests from the field (radishes, turnips, lettuce, peas), and we are also seeing a lot of the first pests. Flea beetles, cabbage loopers, pill bugs and potato beetles all are accounted for in some capacity in the fields. Ah, the highs and the lows of farming. 

—Kate Woods, Farm Manager

Week of 06.09
Made the very short trek to Allen Farm this week to pick up a batch of their compost tea. Mitch and Nathaniel loaded 150 gallons of the brew in the back of our truck and sent me on my way back to feed our living soils. This compost tea is a concentrated mix of beneficial nutrients that will help to feed our soil and eventually then, our plants. It feels like a really wonderful luxury to be so close to such a valuable resource that is both Mitch and Nathaniel, their wisdom and their tea. 

—Kate Woods, Farm Manager

Week of 06.27
Using tarps as a tool for weed suppression usually evokes a strong response from a farmer when asked their opinion. Large and awkward to work with, the wrestling of tarps became an everyday battle on the farm in early spring as we were prepping the blocks for the first plantings. With the constant presence of wind on our farm and the necessity of large amounts of sandbags to hold them down, only time would tell if this work would really pay off in the spring as the plants (and weeds) began to grow. From my observations so far, our weed pressure has largely been reduced and putting in the work earlier has helped save our backs by keeping it at a manageable level. Time will continue to tell but until then tarps will continue to be a necessary tool for suppressing weed pressure. 

—Seth, Farm Crew

Week of 06.27
Farming is hard work! That being said, farming is also a practice of noticing, of paying attention, of care. Lately I have been going on early morning walks around the field and in this time where everything is sleepy and soft I see the things that I often miss during the work day: the shapes and colors and sounds of life going about its business. Though I am reminded by my complete lack of understanding of this little ecosystem in which I spend my time, by noticing, I feel somehow included.

—Beatrice, Farm Crew

New Hoophouses, Infrastructure Takes Time

Parts for the new hoophouses have begun to arrive on the farm and there are now piles of what look like scrap metal lining the main road through the farm.  The site work for the hoophouses is also underway, which has entailed bringing in vast amounts of topsoil to level off the field that they’re going in. Right now the field has a moon-scape quality to it, but with all the rain we’re supposed to get in the coming days soon it will just look like a vast amount of mud.

Having the farm turn into one large construction zone feels like a return to spring in its own way as well.  Then, the entirety of our growing area was chopped up by 4 foot trenches running new water lines across the farm.  Establishing all of the infrastructure needed to run a farm takes way more time than anticipated, and involves starting new projects the second the growing season begins to wind down. 

—Robin Hackett, Farm Manager

Fall, Fennel and Weeding Mulched Paths

Fall has brought its own bounty to the farm these past few weeks.  We’ve been swimming in radishes, turnips, carrots, beets and beans—it almost feels like August all over again.

We’ll also begin harvesting fennel soon, for the first time in months.  It’s been one of our most popular crops of the season, and one of the crew’s favorite to grow as well.  Rows of fennel look beautiful in the field, and haven’t fallen victim to any pests or diseases all season long.

We typically mulch with straw as opposed to hay because straw is supposed to be “seed-free,” but the rye-straw we brought in this season certainly wasn’t.  Many of the walkways that we mulched with the straw are now sprouting healthy, vigorous plantings of rye--just not in the places we wanted them to be.  Looks like more weeding is in our future.

—Robin Hackett, Farm Manager

Hakurei Turnips are a Winner and a Deer Mystery

Our hakurei turnips have been one of our most successful fall crops so far.  They’re sweeter than they were in the spring, and our yields per bed have been up as well.  

While most of the crops we grow on the farm can be found in the grocery store, hakurei turnips almost invariably cannot be.  People are always confused by them at the farmers market (“that’s a turnip?”), but I’ve never gotten a bad review once someone has tried one.

Several days ago we found a deer stuck inside the fence that surrounds our growing area.  After opening the gate we were able to shepherd her out quite quickly, but how she got into the farm overnight remains a mystery.  Both gates were locked, and the fence wasn’t visibly knocked down anywhere.

Let’s hope that it was a one-time incident, and not the beginning of a new trend.

—Robin Hackett, Farm Manager

Cover Crops and a No-Till How-To

01. With fall here in no uncertain terms, getting the farm ready for winter has become one of our top priorities.  About a third of our beds are filled with cover crop at this point, while the rest still hold cold-tolerant vegetables, like turnips, radishes and lettuce.  Each of these beds will be planted to cover crop one by one, as we harvest out the last of the vegetables they hold. 

Growing a cover crop can be one of the most satisfying parts of farming, especially when it’s done right.  Each cover crop serves different purposes, and choosing which ones to plant in a given area can feel a bit like creating a diet plan. 

At this point in the season, we plant a variety of “green manure” mixes that will put on good growth in the cold weather of the fall, but then die on top of the beds once the winter arrives, providing a thick layer of mulch to last through to the spring.  

—Robin Hackett, Farm Manager

02. No-till Bed Prep

• Equipment needed:

• 60 ft x 30 in bedspace

• rake (wider the better)

• plastic tarp

• power harrow (not necessary but nice to have)

Steps

• tarp existing crop for a minimum of two days (depending on heat and sun the plant may take longer/shorter to die)

• rake foliage into walkways to decompose, then rake up the sides of the bed

• use rake to push and pull soil to ensure bed is 30 inches across

• harrow bed for extra smoothness (this is great for when direct seeding)

Voila! No tilling necessary 

—Beatrice, Farm Crew

Cooling Off and Echoing Spring

01. The farm has had many different “looks” over the season. Now that the popping corn has been mowed down, the sunflowers reaching 12 feet high have fallen, the windbreak fences, and tomato plants starting to come out of the ground, and a switch to more root crops, the farm appears to be getting ready to bunker down for the season. Not to say the work is near done. The coming months will continue to bring more hard work in the field and improvements of building and structures as the farm continues its new and evolving look. 

—Seth, Farm Crew

02. With the temperature steadily dropping and rain coming more consistently, there’s a new lushness present on the farm. Our cover crop is coming in full in all the plots that we’ve sown, and the kale and radishes are loving the cooler temps. Even the soil seems to like it, staying cooler, not being baked underneath the sun, with life teeming closer to the surface. It’s been interesting seeing the results of the soil tests that Theo has run all across the farm, with high concentrations of organic matter and fungal activity in all the areas that we would have guessed. 

—Pierceson, Farm Crew

03. Fall on the farm feels like spring, in many ways.  In addition to the colder temperatures, we grow many of the same cool-weather crops, including radishes, turnips and peas.  We harvested our first daikon radishes of the season last week--large purple bulbs with no small amount of spice. 

The same colder temperatures that are welcomed by our radishes and peas will usher in the end for our high-season crops still out in the field.  Our tomato and peppers plants, for instance, will soon take the 50 degree nights as their cue to ripen the final fruit on their vines.

—Robin Hackett, Farm Manager

Lettuce Germination, A Helpful Mouse, Popping Corn and Bunnies--Still

01. Though the weather has been cooling off, the past several weeks have still been consistently in the upper 70’s and 80’s. Hotter weather means less consistent lettuce germination and thus less lettuce. Recently we tried moving our seeded lettuce flats from the hoop house to the basement in order to see if the cooler temperature would help increase germination rates. So far it has proven useful; the lettuce is germinating at nearly 100% (compared to the 60% germination we were getting in the hoop house). As soon as the seeds pop, we move them right back to the hoop house to ensure that they can photosynthesize and continue to grow. The only downside is having to make several trips into the basement to water!

—Beatrice, Farm Crew

02. There’s a mouse in the clover! It's been amazing to see all the life our little acre or so has grown to support over the course of the season, whether that be the pesky hornworms, potato beetles, and bunnies, or the helpful ladybugs, wasps, spiders, and frogs. This little guy, burrowing around and aerating the soil for us is just one of the many examples of patience paying off, and the greater natural world helping us along our way, even if he does eat a bean or two... here and there.

—Pierceson, Farm Crew

03. As was to be expected, the bunnies are back and seem to be especially enjoying our carrots recently.  Our various methods of controlling them have really only held them back this season, but certainly not stopped them.  Better bunny management next year will certainly be something for us to think over in the off-season.

This week marked our first radish harvest since mid-June.  The summer heat typically makes growing radishes not worth the effort (they bolt or become too bitter), but with cooler temperatures arriving they’ll become a staple crop on the farm again.

—Robin Hackett, Farm Manager

04. We harvested our first bushel of popping corn and hung it in the hoop house for the kernels to dry. Growing up in the Midwest, sweet corn was the pinnacle of summer. Although there is a delayed gratification with popping corn - having to wait to enjoy the end product - simply growing corn on the farm is a nostalgic reminder of what the labor of love can bring. 

—Seth Miller, Farm Crew

Flipping Beds, Nostalgia, Fungus and Gridding

01. At this point in the season the farm begins to show its senescence.  All of our onions, garlic and winter squash are out of the ground, and many of our other long-season crops (including tomatoes and eggplant) are starting to show their age.  It still feels like summer outside, but on the farm it’s starting to look like fall.

We’ve spent much of the past week flipping beds from one crop to another, or into cover crops for the rest of the season.  It can be a weirdly nostalgic process.  At this point in the season most beds on the farm have had at least two or three successions of crops in them, and working with them now brings back memories of those successes and failures.  This was the bed full of fennel that grew so beautifully or, the bed of peas that got eaten by bunnies.

While our field tomatoes have been battling off one fungal infection after another all season long, the cherry tomatoes in our hoop-house had been fungus free up to this point.  Now, somewhat predictably, they too are starting to get some powdery mildew, especially on their lower leaves.  Farming has a habit of breaking your heart. All too often it seems, the crops you care for most deeply are also the most vulnerable.

—Robin Hackett, Farm Manager

02. Switching into fall mode we’ve been planting more root crops including radishes. Often our technique has been to sprinkle seeds in 5 rows shaped by a rake for a 30 inch bed. This favors better germination because of the tendency to over seed. However, we tried a new method for direct seeding daikon radishes using the gridder and planting directly into precise holes spaced 2 inches apart. Although the radish variety is still an important factor, the results turned out just as good using the gridder technique - if not better - and will save us time by alleviating the need to “thin out” the bed.

—Seth Miller, Farm Crew

Rain--Finally, An Ode to Soil, Farmer's Log

01. The last week brought the first few days of rain we’ve had on the island in recent memory.  According to the Northeast Regional Climate Center we’re still in the middle of a “moderate drought,” along with much of the rest of the Northeast.  Even with an irrigation system, the lack of rain means that we spend hours a day moving and adjusting sprinklers and turning on and off drip tape.  

 As much as the drought is an inconvenience for us, it’s a real nightmare for the thousands of farmers across the country who dry crop their fields and can’t irrigate for one reason or another.  With such droughts (and much worse) becoming increasingly frequent across the country, it’s also a reminder that we all need to be doing what we can to combat climate change.

How could I not talk about rain, I suppose. I don’t know if there’s a correlation, but with rain, came tomatoes, ripe and ready, come get ‘em. Even with many of the cherries split from over watering, it felt like the heaviest harvest we’ve had yet, and all the splits made for a yummy mid-harvest snack. 

—Pierceson Brown, Farm Crew

 02. I watch the soil as I weed. As roots are pulled, the earth is ripped apart and the soil is alive with animals and insects; a snake slithers through the cabbage bed that is being flipped, followed by a vole, their shaded halls of green leaves dismantled. A nest of soil spiders is disturbed and their gray flight bodies slide over the earth like sand blown in the wind. Worms are thrown into the air as hands pull out clumps of grass. But they slide back down to their soil creating pathways that water will happily trickle down when it rains. Sometimes as I am weeding, I run into a nest of ants. I realize this because my hand feels as though it is under water. Instead, I look down to see it engulfed by small crawling black bodies. This is when admiration of soil life truly turns to fear. 

 —Olivia Meehan, Farm Crew

 03. Because of the schedule I often work Sunday’s as the only one on the farm. While the two time consuming priorities are watering and farmstand, it’s always a challenge to see what else can get done during the day. Here is my farmer’s log for the day: 

7:00 Open farmstand, do daily cleaning logs. 

7:20 Short harvest to keep the farmstand in stock for the day. Sunday afternoon tends to be a busy time as people head back from the beaches.

8:30 Prune/ trellis tomatoes in the hoop house.

10:00 Start to cut out powdery mildew from squash plants.  

10:25 Set up sprinklers, hand water in cover crops and other beds that got direct seeded in, lay out drip tape for new beds, water seedlings in the hoophouse. 

11:50 Clean and restock farmstand before lunch.

12:00 Lunch and naptime. 

1:00 Check farm stand, turn on drip tape for the afternoon and set up another sprinkler for a cover crop plot. 

1:35 Do a harvest of heirloom tomatoes for the farm stand.

2:15 Pull out bed of peas, haul to the compost. 

2:40 Check farm stand and water, fix drip lines. 

3:15 Flail mow three beds of greens by the hoop house. 

3:30 Prep bed and transplant head lettuce. 

4:30 Start to clean up, put tools away, take several bins to the compost pile, water hoop house.

4:45 Make notes for tomorrow's list of things to do. Final clean/ restock of farm stand. Turn off drip lines and sprinklers, close gates. 

4:55 Hand water smallest plot of cover crops by the power tool shed. 

5:00 Call it a day. 

—Seth Miller, Farm Crew

Cover Crop Cocktail, Premature Squash Harvest, The "Splat" Test

01. This week we began transitioning the first beds on the farm to cover crops for the rest of the season.   For these beds, we’re using a common cover crop cocktail combination of winter rye, vetch, field peas and crimson clover that’s designed to both add a large amount of organic matter to the soil in the fall and bounce back early in the spring before it’s dry enough to get new seed in the ground. 

Elsewhere on the farm, we began laying out silage tarps to terminate crops we’re done with for the season.  We decided to harvest our winter squash prematurely  because of a bad squash vine borer infestation.  This wasn’t an easy decision but was in the best long-term interest of the soil. Removing the squash and solarizing the area with silage tarps also means we’ll have plenty of time to grow a deep-rooted cover crop that will help break up the deeply compacted soil in this part of the farm.

—Robin Hackett, Farm Manager

02. The peak of summer has come and gone and you can feel fall coming in the morning fog and the crisper air of the afternoon. The farm itself has started taking on a different shape as we say goodbye to flowers, and squash, and potatoes that have filled our line of sight for months. Frogs now come to play in our mulch, our goofy little amphibious homies, peeping away August. 

—Pierceson Brown, Farm Crew

03. We’ve transitioned several of our beds into cover crops for the season and with the past two days being cooler and rainy, it has been a taste of what fall will bring. After drizzling all morning, I was debating whether or not to run the BCS (a two wheeled walk-behind tractor) on the beds to power harrow in the cover crops. Here’s an old timer trick Robin taught me to help decide if it’s too wet or not. Take a handful of soil to form a ball and drop it on your boot; if it crumples apart you’re good to go. If it makes a splat then it is too wet. Farmer wisdom at its finest.  In the end, the soil was dry enough to harrow so we got in our cover crops before the coming rain.

—Seth Miller, Farm Crew

Weed Pressure and Mycelium

01. As the farm strides forward into August, the daily work of harvesting, watering, and planting, has become rhythmic. One aspect of our weekly routine is weeding: the sun shines, we weed, we weed some more. Over the course of the season, many of us have asked ourselves, “why so many weeds?!”. If one of the benefits of no-till farming is a dramatic decrease in weed pressure, why then are we facing an onslaught of unwanted vegetation from every corner of the farm?

The answer, as we all begrudgingly remind ourselves, is time. During the first several years of transitioning to a no-till system, a farm will still experience all of the old challenges associated with tilling, minus the easy fix that tilling allows. What we are experiencing now in terms of weed pressure is the germination of a seed bank that has been added to over years and years; of course it will take time to flush out.

In the meantime, I am thinking about the history of this farm, this piece of land that we are privileged to tend to each day. In a way, the weeds form a timestamp of seasons past, a living memory of what plants grew where and when (mugwort by Poppy’s garden, purslane in the tomato beds, sorrel sprinkled everywhere). The act of weeding is the act of engaging with time: past, present, and future. Though it may be tedious, it is humbling to look forward and know that the care being poured into the land now will be held there for years to come.

 Aside from weeds, I have been noticing more mushrooms than ever popping up all over the farm. Ink Caps in the cabbage, thick mats of mycelium under our mulched walkways. The resurchange of fungal microbiology is a telling sign of soil regeneration; it shows that though we still have a ways to go, our current farming practices are promoting a system of symbiosis, diversity, and resilience.

—Beatrice Scott

02. Peak of the season seems to be in full force as August begins. We’ve been putting more effort into bed prep and direct seeding which seems to be paying off with our best looking beds of baby kale, greens mix, carrots and radishes popping up. The kale transplants have also benefited from putting a row cover on to deter the rabbits.   

—Seth Miller, Farm Crew

03. With August finally here the farm has reached a kind of fever pitch.  All of the crops (and the weeds) are growing faster than ever, and each demands its own kind of attention: Tomato plants need to be pruned and trellised, shallots harvested and cured, spinach seeded for the fall.  Every day is a new kind of frenzy.

As it normally does, the warm weather seems to have driven away many of the pests that lingered around the farm throughout the spring and early summer.  The potato beetles, aphids, flea beetles have all made themselves scarce for the time-being.  

—Robin Hackett, Farm Manager

Eggplants, Tomato Hornworms and Companion Planting

01. We finished harvesting our garlic and have all of it hanging from various rafters across the farm to cure.  All of the varieties did well, but the Georgian Fire--a variety known for its pungency and heat--really excelled.

Even more exciting than the garlic itself was the seaweed we used to mulch it. We’ve struggled all season to find the right materials to mulch our walkways. Straw, for instance, is too expensive and hay brings in too many weed seeds. The seaweed we used to mulch our garlic beds, however, was free and still actively suppressing weeds almost a year after we put it down.  Maybe we’ll have to organize a caravan of friends with pickup trucks to harvest a bunch from the south shore.

A variety of birds have begun to take up residence on the farm, including a few Northern Bobwhite Quail, some red-tailed hawks and flocks of starlings and sparrows. They’re all a welcome addition to the farm ecosystem and will hopefully help us keep our pest populations in check. Unfortunately, they’ve also been doing their best to eat all of the cover crop seed we sow.

The other day we found the farm’s first tomato hornworm of the season enjoying a shisito pepper. It wasn’t the largest tomato hornworm out there, but for many on the crew it was their first time seeing this dreaded pest wreak havoc on our tomato plants. I fear we are embarking on another showdown between the tomato hornworm and the able crew of Beetlebung Farm.

—Robin Hackett, Farm Manager

02. Early in the season, our eggplants were ravished by potato beetles. Apparently, potato beetles do not stick to potatoes but instead enjoy all varieties of nightshade In caring for the eggplants I’ve pruned them of dead leaves and, gleefully, smushed any pesky potato beetles. While our farm crew initially feared that these pests would stress out our crop and dramatically affect yields, the eggplant was resilient. 

Most of the beetles I came across were mature adults, capable of leaving beetle eggs on the leafy undersides of the plant. While pruning, I took my time and checked each leaf for beetle larvae. Every so often, I would find a cluster of larvae to squish with the strength of my phalanges. Our farm crew has the pesky potato beetle mostly under control thanks to our collective efforts. But as the old saying goes, when one door closes, another one opens.

Just the other day, Beatrice found the farm’s first tomato hornworm of the season enjoying a shisito pepper. It wasn’t the largest tomato hornworm, but for many here at the farm, it was the first time ever seeing this dreaded pest wreak havoc on our precious tomato plants! I fear we are embarking on another showdown between the tomato hornworm and the able crew of Beetlebung Farm. 

Searching for a way to holistically rid or deter hornworms and potato beetles, research pointed towards densely intercropping the tomatoes with herbs such as dill and basil. Articles cite marigolds as an additional plant to include in your intercropping as both pests don’t like those either. Currently at Beetlebung Farm, we plant marigolds, a pollinator, at the head of our beds. But, applying the already practiced logic of ‘intercropping,’ perhaps we should also be thinking about what might deter the pests that already exist by considering future ‘companion planting’ of catnip, tansy or sage?

I couldn’t help but draw the connection between ‘companion planting’ and the regenerative practice of intercropping. Essentially, my research to rid our garden of pests illuminated the value and necessity of ensuring ecological diversity best accomplished by using polyculture practices such as intercropping and companion planting. Simply put, ecological diversity will help our farm thrive.

And of course, with the concept of companion planting and intercropping on my mind, my thoughts wander to the current conversations happening across our society and the world. When you start to cultivate plants and vegetables using regenerative practices you better understand just how resilient natural diversity makes an ecological system.   Nature has been leading by example all along; there is strength in diversity.

—Alex O’Brien, Farm Crew

Solarizing Crop Remnants, Exploding Squash, MORE Bunnies

We’ve begun using old pieces of plastic that blew off our hoophouse in a storm last fall to “solarize” the residue of crops that we’re ready to terminate.  Doing so allows us to kill off the remnants of a previous crop without tilling them in.

The technique seems to be working well in the heat of the summer, but wasn’t as effective in the spring.  Then, the augmented heat under the plastic just spurred the growth of the cover crops we were trying to kill.

Our summer squash are exploding with productivity.  Even with assiduous, daily harvesting, we still find enormous squashes that have eluded us and are almost grotesquely large. —Robin Hackett, Farm Manager

Discovered yet another nest of bunnies in an old bed of garlic.  We have been told that they are part wild, part domesticated and now there is a movement among some members of the farm team to adopt? —Amy Shepherd, Farm Group

Potatoes, Rabbits in the Lettuce, No-Till Bed Flipping

Began harvesting our first potato crop of the year, Dark Red Norlands, a cultivar from Nebraska known for its creamy texture.  The yield is good, especially given that we grew the potatoes on a part of the property that hadn’t been farmed for decades.

The rabbits are back and on a mission to eat as much of our lettuce as possible.  It’s impossible to walk through the farm in the evening without spooking two or three of them out from under the raspberry bushes or the beds of garlic. — Robin Hackett, Farm Manager

We continue to experiment with flipping beds from one crop to the next without tilling.  This week, we mowed down an old bed of Swiss chard and planted lettuce alongside the still-intact stalks in the ground.  Placing the lettuce around the old Swiss chard was a bit difficult, but will hopefully be worth the effort. —Alex O’Brien, Farm Crew

First Beans and Huge Squash Plants

The first bean crop of the year is almost ready.  Unlike many other plants on the farm, slugs, flea beetles and aphids don’t have any interest in beans so the crop is largely unblemished.  Excited to bring them to market in a few weeks.

The row of summer squash grown in one of our true “no-till” beds that we didn’t shape this spring is almost double the size of any other bed of squash on the farm.  Maybe there is something to all of this “no-till” stuff after all...

— Robin Hackett, Farm Manager

No-Till Bed Termination and Thriving Hoop House Tomatoes

Experimenting with how to best terminate a bed of arugula without tilling it in.  We tried mowing it with a flail mower, but it came back quicker than expected.  After that we used the wheel-hoe to finish it off.  In the future mowing and then tarping could be a good combination.

Our few rows of cherry tomatoes in the hoop house are thriving.  They’re almost twice as tall as their colleagues outside, despite having been seeded and transplanted a month later.  It would undoubtedly be helpful to have additional high tunnels in the future.

— Robin Hackett, Farm Manager

Threshing, Bed Shaping, Tomato Challenges

Our first seed crop of the season is ready for threshing.  We planted the kale in our hoop house in September and let it overwinter as food for the farm crew.  Extracting the seeds by hand is a time-consuming (but fun) process.  Will have to develop a better system for future harvests.

Shaped the final beds of the season using the rotary plow on the BCS.  In total we now have 50+, 60’ permanent beds.  Hopefully this will represent some of the last substantial tillage we have to do on the farm. 

Our field tomatoes have been a challenge so far this season. We brought in a cohort of predatory insects (including lacewings, predatory wasps and aphidoletes) to fight back an aphid infestation, which seems to have made an impact.  We also sprayed the plants once with neem oil, which we are generally opposed to doing except in extreme circumstances.  

Now, though, the plants are showing some signs of wind-stress, including unsightly, curled leaves that look almost like a rolled cigar.  The undersides of some of the bottom leaves are almost coated in a layer of sand.  We put up a burlap windbreak for temporary protection but in the long-term tall, perennial hedges could be planted to shelter this section of the farm.

— Robin Hackett, Farm Manager

Stunted Beets, Handsome Fennel, Squishing Beetles

Our beets seem to be stunted despite having been thinned quite aggressively.  Could be some sort of nutrient imbalance in the soil -- perhaps an excess of phosphorus?  Will have to monitor future beds to see if the issue is persistent. 

Our fennel, on the other hand, is growing handsomely.  We’ve been selling it as baby fennel to get another crop in the ground more quickly.

Almost overnight the farm has been overrun with potato beetles.  They are thick on the potatoes and the eggplant.  They must have remembered our potato crop from last year.  Squishing the beetles by hand is now a daily chore.  The  beetlejuice easily squirts 5 feet in the air and is leaving permanent, orange stains on our clothes.

— Robin Hackett, Farm Manager

Good Turnips, Interplanted Onions, the end of the Rabbits

Hakurei turnips seem to be a big hit--everyone seems surprised that turnips can be small and tender instead of woody and dense.

Began harvesting our first spring onions of the season.  We interplanted most of them in beds of flowers and squash across the farm.  It’s now a kind of treasure hunt to find the bunching onions every week, but it’s not the most efficient way to harvest.

The baby bunnies in the carrot bed are all dead.  Most likely their mother somehow died, and without her the babies were not far behind.

— Robin Hackett, Farm Manager