We have plenty of collards available at the farm stand on Tuesday for New Year’s Day meals!
My anemone flowers are blooming up a storm in this warm weather. I honestly do not know how long they will keep this going, but am absolutely loving every day of them. Several bouquets and bunches will be available at Tuesday’s farm stand, and at Renfrow’s on Saturday. Enjoy these brilliant blooms while you can!!
This is not a very pretty photo, but not all things in farming are glamorous. Here is my mustard patch – suddenly and finally succumbing to the near-constant wetness of the past 2 months. Too much rain is a farmer’s worst nightmare – it is even harder to deal with than the heat wave and drought we received this summer. An old farmer’s saying goes like this: “a drought will scare you, but too much rain will kill you.” In the summertime, diseases run rampant, and in the wintertime many plants simply drown and rot. I am thankful that my crops have produced for me for this long, as I don’t know how many are going to recover after this week.
We’ve lost dozens and dozens of pounds of broccoli due to the heads rotting before growing to harvestable size. Some of our rows of greens are sitting in standing water – and this photo was taken Monday afternoon before it started raining yet again!!
The National Weather Service predicts that this winter will be one of the wettest on record, though they are not sure if it will arrive as rain or snow! We’ve done everything we can to mitigate the weather’s effects on us, through the use of compost, cover crops, etc – but we are ultimately at its mercy.
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Despite all of the crazy weather extremes, this year has exceeded all of our expectations as our small farm continues to grow. Next week I will provide a 2015 recap with several of my favorite images and events on the farm. We are so grateful for our community’s support of our farming endeavors and cannot wait to see where 2016 leads us!
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The weather’s effects on the produce in the fields this week will determine whether or not we will have a market next Tuesday, January 5th. I will announce the decision in the weekly newsletter on Monday morning, January 4th, so stay tuned!
