Minimizing work in the heatwave
The weather has an affect on the farm every day but the extreme heat wave we are in right now has led us to this week being very different than the past ones with simple goals.
Even though we are more adjusted to hot temperatures due to working outside every day this is a little too hot and we are getting up earlier so we can finish before the hottest part of the day.
Our goal is to work the fewest hours we can on the farm while still getting all the necessary tasks done at the farm.
Fortunately right now we don’t have any planting to do and we have stayed ahead of most of the weeding so this week the only necessary task to do is harvest. Of course we’ve been spending time inside planning for the fall and organizing as in just a couple of weeks we will start seeding for fall crops.
Almost all of our summer crops are harvested multiple times a week which means we still have a good amount of work every day but most of it is getting done in the morning this week.
This heat wave will likely cause the tomatoes to speed up their ripening so we should have lots of them this weekend and in the coming weeks.
On Monday we harvested the first of the Copia variety of tomatoes which is a super special one to us since we chose it with our dad to grow 20 years. Then we used seed he saved to grow some our first year and are now saving our own seed.
Not watering the summer veggies during this heatwave would cause them to get stressed out and not produce much in the future so they have to get watered.
That watering leads to the fruits on the plants growing even quicker so we have to stay on top of the harvest to not let the cucumbers or summer squash get way too big.
Our planting plan had us direct seeding our last big planting of cucumbers which is being pushed back because it would not be smart to be planting during this heatwave.
The likelihood would be that even if the seeds got constant irrigation there would be a reduced germination due to the hot days. Instead we will seed them after it cools down to the mid-90s and since we already have three planting in the ground of cucumbers we are not too fussed about this one being a little bit late.
On Sunday we mowed down all of spring bunching greens and our last lettuce to stop some of them from going to seed any further and to have the organic matter begin to break down.
Next to the lettuce we mowed is our okra area for this season and we are so happy with how well it germinated this year. Last year one of our beds didn’t germinate at all so we were short one bed for the season and the other ones didn’t do that great.
The plants all look like they seeded at the same time but the ones on the right were a few weeks ahead and are the plants that already are producing. One of the first two beds is a very cool burgundy color okra.
