The Solstice and 1,000lbs of Spuds
This past Friday, the solstice, our Spring was met and ended with a tempestuous wind. No zephyrs, no poetry - just abrasive and relentless gusts. The first day of summer paraded its way across the state gloating, and announcing its presence to anyone who'll listen, especially the uninterested. And on the heels of its boisterous and blustery entrance, an extreme heat wave. The timing of these weather patterns, forced us to make hard decisions - some on the defensive. Before tomorrow's unprecedented triple-digit-hellscape, we will bring out our 5,000 winter squash plants from the nursery to a shaded area, to reduce their stress. They are already stressed, as we decided to delay their planting til post-heatwave. It was a tough decision, but without field irrigation, I thought it better to keep them stressed in a temporary and controlled environment near a consistent water source than in an open field. Other measures we took were to hoop and drape row cover over recent lettuce and broccoli plants. Though this will create a greenhouse effect, it also helps to diffuse the sunlight which is a compromise we thought would be best for the plants. We'll see.
Overall it was an eventful and extremely productive week. We cultivated and mulched our field tomatoes, we had Gather out to the farm to glean several-bushels-worth of turnips, we're chipping away at weeding the carrots, our first sprouting broccoli harvest has been abundant, the first sugar snap peas are here, and we planted 1,000 lbs of potatoes! Stay hydrated out there!
Volunteer Schedule
Due to the heat wave we will only be hosting volunteers later in the week. We have a huge project on deck though, winter squash planting!! Looks like the heat is going to break by Thursday, so it should make for some cool-ish planting conditions.
If any of the following shifts work for you, please email us at FarmerJosh@RootsinReverie.com so we know how many to expect.
Have questions? Check out our post all about Volunteering at Roots in Reverie.
Fri, June 27
9am – 12pm
Sat, June 28
9am – 12pm
Around the Farm
Miranda on quality control on the seed potatoes. She was sorting out any rotten or damaged tubers, and also extending our seed by cutting the potatoes if they were large enough and had viable sprouts. A vital piece to the planting project - great work as always Miranda!
Despite unprecedented demand all spring for our produce, and especially the beloved hakurei turnips, we still had an abundance! Last week, some volunteers from Gather came to the farm to glean out lots of turnips that will be cooked into meals and distributed to the community.
On Saturday, and with huge help from volunteer Kira, we planted 1,000 lbs of potatoes!! An all-day all-farmer-hands-on-deck project and we are so happy to check it off the to-do. Thanks again Kira!! MVP!!
---> Spud Infinity <---
..aaand they're mulched. We sourced this straw from Willoughby Farm in Kensington, NH. It's a spring crop of organic triticale. We only use natural mulches at Roots in Reverie, never plastic. Adding organic matter to the soil is a priority in our land management systems, and just one of the many ways we adhere to the tenets of regenerative agriculture. Learn more about our growing practices.
Bria and Miranda scuffling the weeds between the tomatoes before we mulched!
