Farm Friday, June 16th, 2023

It's the end of the world as we know it, and I am still farming.

The sunsets in the smoky air can feel like we are on another planet.

This week we have experienced extremely bad air quality due to the wildfires in Canada. I have never seen it so bad. We might be over a thousand miles away, but it smells like the fire is next door. The air is thick. People are directed to go inside. We canceled my Morris dance practice. But it also happened to be the biggest week of the year for the farm. We needed to finish the planting and keep the water going to keep the plants we have in the ground alive. Timing is critical in farming, and I felt like it was necessary to keep working. Really it was only Wednesday that was terrible air, the rest was just bad.

We planted tomatoes in this little hoophouse. Our goal is to use the greenhouse effect to grow more tomatoes.

This hoophouse gets peppers and eggplant.

Aphids! Don’t worry — this is not one of our crops.

We caved and bought a roll of drip tape for the pumpkins and squash. This investment of time and money has worked in the past to make it rain, but for now, the pumpkin plants have avoided death.

Watering in the little garden. Tomatoes and herbs

The onions are perfectly weeded. There are no clouds in this picture — just smoke!

Three sisters

Some rodent (mouse or chipmunk) ate every watermelon seed. Aaaaaargh! They ate around my traps.

We got hay baled last Friday. Have I mentioned how much I love our hey elevator?

New Rooster. Handsome guy!

We are seeding a cover crop of buckwheat. I tilled it in and kicked up a dust cloud. It is dry!